Something genuinely unusual has been happening in the serious-Italian-wine secondary market through late 2026. Giacomo Conterno's Monfortino 2019 has hit the top spot on Liv-ex's weekly trade-by-value table and refused to leave, sitting in the top five for three consecutive weeks through early November. No Barolo has ever pulled that off, and it isn't happening during a quiet stretch of the broader serious-wine calendar. The wine has been outpacing Bordeaux First Growths, Burgundy grand crus, and Super Tuscans in actual trade activity — a structural moment for both Conterno specifically and Italian fine wine more broadly.
This is our editorial read on what's behind the obsession with Monfortino 2019 and what it tells us about where serious Italian wine sits in 2026.
Why Monfortino sits where it sits
Giacomo Conterno's Monfortino is the structural reference for serious Italian wine. The Cascina Francia estate (purchased by Giovanni Conterno in 1974) produces Barolo from named single-vineyard sources in the Serralunga d'Alba commune; the Monfortino bottling is the estate's flagship, made only from the strongest vintages and only from grapes considered worthy of the name. The wine is essentially the Italian equivalent of a Bordeaux First Growth — long ageing in large old oak (typically 7–10 years before release), fierce vintage selectivity, and structural quality that consistently rates among Italy's most-coveted wines.
The current generation, Roberto Conterno, runs the estate with the same vintage-selectivity discipline his father established. Monfortino is declared in roughly 60–70% of vintages — the rest of the production is bottled as the estate's standard Barolo Cascina Francia, which is itself one of Italy's most-respected serious Barolos.
What the 2019 vintage delivers
The 2019 Barolo vintage arrived in the structural top tier of the past two decades. Critics including Antonio Galloni (Vinous), Monica Larner (Wine Advocate), and Walter Speller (JancisRobinson.com) have consistently rated 2019 Piedmonte vintage at 95–98 across the named producers. The growing season delivered structural balance — adequate rainfall during the early summer, warm conditions through ripening, late-season balance that allowed for optimal Nebbiolo character development.
For Monfortino specifically, the 2019 vintage produces wines of structural depth that combine the Cascina Francia terroir with the long old-oak ageing approach Roberto Conterno maintains. The wines released in late 2026 (Monfortino's release timing puts the 2019 in the merchant calendar across late 2026 and 2027) have built immediate critical recognition that translated directly into the Liv-ex trade activity.
The structural secondary-market data
The Liv-ex data tracks the structural picture clearly. Monfortino 2019 has cleared £6,100–£6,300 per case (12 bottles) consistently across the past several weeks of trade activity, a meaningful move from earlier release pricing. The wine's secondary-market presence has built through a combination of strong critical scores, the structural Conterno reputation, and the broader collector momentum behind serious Italian wine that has been building across the past several years.
The structural significance for Italian wine more broadly is the rarity of the moment. Liv-ex's weekly trade-by-value rankings have been Bordeaux-and-Burgundy-dominated for essentially the entire history of the platform; a Barolo holding the top trade position for multiple consecutive weeks signals genuine structural shift in collector attention rather than a single-event spike.
What's driving the broader Italian wine momentum
Several structural factors explain the broader Italian fine-wine context that has positioned Monfortino 2019 to absorb the structural attention. The 2018–2022 Burgundy boom and 2023–2024 correction. Burgundy grand cru pricing across the past five years pushed many serious collectors toward thinking about non-Burgundy categories with comparable structural quality at meaningfully more accessible price tiers; serious Italian wine has been one of the structural beneficiaries. The named Italian producer tier maturity. Monfortino, the broader Conterno tier, Bartolo Mascarello, Bruno Giacosa, the Barolo Boys generation, and the Brunello and Super Tuscan top tier have all built structural collector recognition that didn't exist a generation ago. International auction-house engagement. Christie's and Sotheby's have built consistent Italian-wine catalogue presence over the past decade; the structural visibility of named Italian producers at major sales has compounded across years. The broader serious-collector demographic shift. Younger serious collectors entering the market over the past decade have shown structural preferences for serious Italian wine alongside the canonical Bordeaux-Burgundy-Champagne categories.
How Monfortino sits relative to the broader serious Italian wine tier
Monfortino remains the structural top of serious Italian wine alongside a small number of comparable references. Bartolo Mascarello and Bruno Giacosa for the historical Barolo tradition; the Barolo Boys generation (Elio Altare, Domenico Clerico, Luciano Sandrone in their primary work; the broader modern Barolo tier currently active); Soldera Case Basse for Brunello at the structural top (Soldera died in 2019, with library releases now trading at meaningful prices); Biondi-Santi Riserva for the historic Brunello tier; Masseto for the cult Italian Merlot.
The cellars built around the structural top of serious Italian wine typically combine selective Monfortino positions (with the Cascina Francia bottlings providing the broader Conterno depth) with named Bartolo Mascarello and Bruno Giacosa Barolo positions, named Brunello (Soldera, Biondi-Santi, Cerbaiona, Salvioni, Conti Costanti, Il Marroneto), Tuscan Bordeaux-style Super Tuscans (Sassicaia, Tignanello, Solaia, Masseto, Ornellaia), and selective broader serious Italian wine positions for stylistic depth.
The honest framing
Monfortino 2019 has captured collector attention in 2026 because the wine combines extraordinary critical reception, structural Conterno reputation, and the broader serious Italian wine momentum that has been building across the past several years. The Liv-ex trade-by-value rankings reflect a genuine structural moment for the category rather than a single-vintage spike that will revert.
For collectors building serious Italian wine depth, Monfortino 2019 sits where it sits — at the structural top tier, with the per-bottle clearing prices that the structural top requires, and with the long ageing arc that the Conterno tradition demands (these wines reach their drink windows at 25–40 years from release). The pattern most serious collectors converge on is selective Monfortino positions held alongside the broader serious Italian wine tier rather than concentrated bidding on Monfortino specifically. The cellars built around the structural top of serious Italian wine across decades — combining the named Barolo, Brunello, and Super Tuscan tiers — are typically the cellars best positioned as Italian wine continues its structural trajectory in serious-wine conversation.
Stefanos Moschopoulos
Stefanos Moschopoulos founded The Luxury Playbook in Athens and has spent the better part of a decade following the auction calendar, the en primeur releases, and the watchmakers, gallerists, and shipyards the magazine covers. He writes the field guides and listicles that anchor the Connoisseur section — pieces built on Phillips and Christie's results, Liv-ex movements, and conversations with collectors he has met across Geneva, Bordeaux, Basel, and Monaco. His own collecting habits sit closer to watches and wine than art, and it shows in the level of detail in the magazine's coverage of those categories. Under his direction, The Luxury Playbook now publishes long-form field guides, market-defining year-end listicles, and the Voices interview series with the founders behind the houses and the brands.
