2008 Gaja, Barolo, Conteisa

Super refined. Aromas of plums and berries with freshly cut flowers and orange peel. Full-bodied, with a very focused palate and super fine tannins. It goes on for minutes with dark fruits and milk chocolate. Gorgeous already. Polished. Complex and subtle. Almost too good now! Better than 2007.

Wine Advocate April, 2012

The 2008 Conteisa is a knock-out. It boasts the most striking inner sweetness and perfume imaginable, a quality shared by a handful of legendary Piemonte wines. Juicy red cherries, spices, hard candy and mint caress the palate in this extraordinary, breathtaking wine. The balance of aromatics, fruit, acidity and structure are simply captivating. The 2008 is of course far too young to deliver maximum pleasure, but it is impossible to miss its pedigree. This is a fabulous showing from Gaja. Conteisa is often outstanding, but the 2008 will go down as one of the great all-time vintages for this wine. Conteisa is made from Gaja's plots in the Cerequio vineyard of La Morra. Anticipated maturity: 2023-2043.

Good medium red. Aromatic nose of cherry liqueur, raspberry, mocha and camphor lifted by fresh red raspberry and mint and complicated by roasted herbs and a whiff of peach. Lush and seamless on entry, then big and spicy in the middle, with a restrained sweetness to its dark fruit flavors. The huge but harmonious tannins are slow to make their presence felt, eventually coating the teeth and melting into the wine's fruit.