James Conterno
"Giacomo Conterno , the man who before anyone else, strongly believed in the possibility of changing the face of the Langhe, proposing himself as a quality producer in a context that, at the time, was considered a utopia."
Historic winery founded by Giacomo Conterno in 1900 in Monforte d'Alba. Giacomo descends from a family of winegrowers who have been active in the Piedmont region since 1800. It was Giacomo's son who bottled Barolo for the first time in 1912 , selecting not only his own grapes but also grapes from local suppliers.
In that era, in fact, wine was sold exclusively in barrels or demijohns and finding it in bottles was a real luxury, a rarity!
In 1934 Giovanni Conterno, son of Giacomo, produced for the first time what is today the most representative wine of the winery: the Monfortino . This name was chosen to remember the Monforte d'Alba area.
Also in those years the Conterno family purchased 14 hectares of land particularly suited for the production of Nebbiolo and Barbera: what we all know as the Cascina Francia vineyard. With this purchase they will no longer buy grapes from the suppliers, production will therefore be focused exclusively on the land and grapes owned. 
Today at the helm of the company we find Roberto Conterno who with masterful care continues the work of his ancestors. Traditional cultivation and winemaking systems, careful pruning, thinning of the bunches, defoliation, harvesting only in optimal conditions... today as then, simple and ancient precautions to obtain wines of excellent quality.
Today we can safely say that we are in front of one of the most highly rated companies in the Langhe.
The global success of the Giacomo Conterno company is inextricably linked to the superior value of its Barolo Riserva Monfortino . Since 1978, Monfortino has been produced exclusively from the 14 hectares of the Francia vineyard in Serralunga, a company monopoly, with 11 hectares dedicated to Nebbiolo for Barolo and 3 hectares dedicated to Barbera.
From these 14 hectares Roberto produces three wines, the Barolo Riserva “Monfortino” , the Barolo “Cascina Francia” and the Barbera d'Alba “Cascina Francia” . The grapes used to produce the Monfortino generally always come from the same plots, conveyed, at the end of the “maceration”, almost always into a single barrel with a capacity of 55 hectolitres.
