Castello Conti, Colline Novaresi, Spanna (Nebbiolo)

If you share my (and many top sommeliers') obsession with the highest  echelon of handcrafted, extremely limited “mountain” Nebbiolo, then I suspect you’re already well acquainted with Castello Conti. Along with icons like ArPePe in Valtellina, Ferrando in Carema, and the Antoniotti family in Bramaterra, the Conti family has helped plant the flag for NON Barolo/Barbaresco Nebbiolo. Their dark, brooding “Il Rosso delle Donne” has come to define the small village of Boca, but it remains a wine that is both difficult to acquire and quite expensive. With today’s wine, we’re not sacrificing any of Conti’s characteristic scarcity (1200 bottles on Earth!), mountain terroir, or Nebbiolo typically - but take my word that this is a very special opportunity to enjoy the craftsmanship of the iconic Conti sisters on a “weeknight budget”!

Sisters Elena, Anna & Paola Conti painstakingly hand-farm one of the most prized parcels of Nebbiolo in all of Italy. Planted in 1971, their single hectare of vines in the village of Boca has been producing a small, passionately sought after trickle of muscular, hauntingly aromatic, and almost infinitely age-worthy Nebbiolo for over 50 years! This family practices rigorous organic farming, possesses cellar technique so confident and skilled that almost no technological safety nets are necessary, and the quality and consistency of their wines is undeniable. There are only two challenges with Conti: price and access! But today we’ve solved both.

Today’s wine was born in the 2021 vintage, a year in which many Nebbiolos over achieve. In Barolo, Barbaresco, Valtellina, and here in the northern, or Alto, Langhe, a startlingly high percentage of wines seem to possess extra expressiveness, torque - and an immediately gratifying quality that isn’t always Nebbiolo’s strongest suit. Fruit was hand-harvested just south of the village of Ghemme and is vinified using the Conti sister’s characteristic neutral Slavonian oak and a bare minimum addition of sulfites. Today, 4.5 years later, it’s absolutely singing!

In the glass, this 2021 Castello Conti Colline Novaresi Spanna is a living, breathing, wild beast. Aromas of dark cherry, animal hide, orange spice, black truffle, dried herbs, and subtle dried spice roar upward  from the glass. Still, behind the brutality there are layers of wet earth, Nantou mountain tea leaf, and blue flowers. On the palate, it is both structured and robust, dense, uninhibited tannins, sanguine red fruit, and devastatingly long finish make this wine a real treat at the dinner table. Please enjoy from today until 2029, and serve  in a Burgundy stem, ideally after 25 minutes in a decanter. This wine is built for a first course of carne crudo, followed by a primi of pappardelle with lamb Bolognese.