The Cascina Fontana Barbera d’Alba is sourced from two vineyards: Vigna del Castello in Sinio, with 80 year old vines, and Vigna del Pozzo in Castiglione Falletto. Fermentation is short to preserve freshness, then the wine is aged in cement before passing to 220 liter oak barrels for 12 months. This is the only wine to mature in small oak barrels, which helps to round out the natural high acidity of Barbera.
The rare majestic beauty, vine-covered hills and castle-topped villages of Le Langhe embody one of Italy’s most storied wine regions. Here, in Perno, sits Cascina Fontana, 5 hectares of family-inherited vineyards run by Mario Fontana - an honest and unapologetically classic man, just like his wines - whose lineage runs generations deep in this area.
Cascina Fontana is as much a story of beautiful wines as it is of good people, respectful growers and genuine generosity. This is the land of Barolo, a wine steeped in tradition that, according to Mario, is best done ‘come una volta’ -- just as it was in the past.
The Fontana family has been producing wine in Monforte D’Alba, in the heart of the Langhe, for six generations, since 1820. Throughout these 200 years, they have always adhered to preserving tradition from the vineyards to the cellar lined with botti. But it was in 1994 that Mario Fontana began his chapter, on a mission to restore what his grandfather had put in place. Timing was on his side, as Piedmont was pulsing to the beat of the radically courageous Barolo Boys and the region’s wines began to be recognized and exported all over the world. The winery produces only classic red wines from the Langhe, Dolcetto, Barbera and Nebbiolo and Mario oversees the entire production cycle along with his wife, Luisa.
