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Beauty Born in a Barrel

A Note from Sergio            

I spend a lot of time in cellars. Though they share the commonality of all being under ground, producers' cellars are all very different. Some are bright, clean, and scrubbed within an inch of their lives; others are dark and mysterious, covered in muffa, the Italian word for "mold," an organism that imparts its own magic to the wine being made. Some have color-coded hoses coiled in pristine, perfect "O"s; others seem to be denizen of a mad alchemist. I've seen equipment I can't name or even fathom its use.  

The primary activity in the cellar is barrel tasting. Not every producer offers you a taste of his or her wines out of the barrel--some realize that their wines' extreme youth does the juice little favors--but most do. Barrel tasting takes a certain art. It is, of course, how the winemaker determines further protocol for the wine, how long to age it, how to blend it, or even which designation the wine will have. But it's hard to parse the flavors of a wine still aging in the barrel. It's like feeling sand in your fingers and imagining what a great pearl it will make.   

It can take a lot of experience and vision to swirl a very young wine around your mouth and imagine the shape it's going to take as an adult. Sometimes the wine is funky and weird with a mismatched plaids-and-paisley quality. Sometimes the wine tastes sharp and pointy, like cypress trees in your mouth. Other times it tastes like a teen party that's raided the liquor cabinet when the parents were out. Still others, however, it's a pleasure, a pure experience that makes you give an internal "Ah!" as the wine crosses your palate. Very rarely, you taste out of a barrel and your vision is one of glory.          

Such was the experience recently at Giacomo Conterno. Roberto Conterno, Giacomo's grandson and head of the estate, continues his grandfathers and his father's traditional practices. The cellar is big, filled with hulking botti, some of the biggest you'll find anywhere. That ineffable cellar scent hangs like a sweet muted fog. My experiences in Conterno's cellars are always good--that's one sign of a genius winemaker, consistently good barrel tasting--but tasting the estate's upcoming wines a few weeks ago reminded me why I love my job. It's like getting a preview of heaven.       

My Best,