If you’ve followed any of the recent high-profile transactions in Barolo, you know that vineyard land values in this historic wine zone—a UNESCO World Heritage Site—are now right up there with the highest in the world. First off, surface area is limited: The entire Barolo DOCG comprises a little over 2,000 hectares (5,000 acres), so scarcity is part of the equation. If you want to get into the Barolo game, or expand your existing empire, you’re going to pay a premium.
But beyond the cost of inputs, there’s also the inflationary pull of worldwide demand, which continues to increase for the intriguing, eminently collectible reds of Barolo. And then there are old-school outliers like Mario Fontana—a sixth-generation contadino (farmer) and vignaiolo (vintner) with no intention of selling his five hectares of vineyards in the Barolo zone. He likely could, but instead continues to craft honest, classically styled wines at prices no newcomer could possibly match. If you are a Barolo traditionalist with a love for names like Mascarello, Rinaldi, and Cappellano, Cascina Fontana is a true Barolista with a much-less-prohibitive cost of entry. Today’s wine, from the highly acclaimed 2010 vintage—a year characterized by wines of exquisite balance and perfume—is as shrewd a choice for your cellar as you could ask for; it is enjoyable now but clearly capable of another decade-plus of aging. Wines like this at this price are simply ceasing to exist in today’s market, so snap this one up while you still can!
As I’ve mentioned in other Barolo offers, I’m encountering so many wines that blur the line between “traditional” and “modern” that the distinction—which has dominated the Barolo discussion for as long as I can remember—seems outmoded. But with Cascina Fontana, there’s no ambiguity whatsoever: Mario’s wines epitomize “traditional” Barolo, undergoing a lengthy skin maceration during primary fermentation (to extract substantial tannins) and aging in large, used barrels crafted from Slavonian oak. These aren’t forwardly fruity, inky, toasty wines; these are wines that leave no doubt that they’re of the earth, with lots of the savor and spice that characterizes the Nebbiolo grape as grown in this area.
While Fontana’s family home and farm are in the hamlet of Perno, within the Barolo commune of Monforte d’Alba, his vineyard holdings are primarily in neighboring Castiglione Falletto and further afield in La Morra. He’s a neighbor of Vietti’s Luca Currado in the “Villero” vineyard and also has a choice piece of the adjacent “Mariondino” cru. These two sites form the backbone of today’s Barolo, which also incorporates fruit from the “Giachini” cru in La Morra. Following fermentation, Mario ages the wine in 25- and 27-hectoliter Slavonian oak casks for two years, followed by another year of aging in concrete tanks before bottling—and then there’s six more months aging in bottle before the wine is released.
And if I’m introducing a newcomer to Barolo, this is a wine I’d love to have in my bag—it is exactly the kind of aromatic, heady, complex expression of the Nebbiolo grape that turns dabblers into full-time fanatics. In the glass, it’s a pale garnet red moving to brick orange at the rim, deceiving you into thinking it’s a “light” red. Quite the contrary—but, like all great Barolo, its fullness is expressed not in sappy, burly palate weight but in fine-grained, gently gripping textrure and profound aromatic persistence. The nose is a textbook mélange of dried black cherry, red and black currant, black tea, leather, orange peel, pipe tobacco and damp forest floor. Although the tannins have softened with bottle age, there’s still enough structure here to (a) merit a decanting about 30-60 minutes before service and (b) ensure another 10+ years of aging in proper cellar conditions. You won’t be able to resist opening a bottle now; serve it in Burgundy stems at 60-65 degrees, sipping and savoring slowly with the attached recipe, which is appropriately “old school” (old-school American, not Italian, but the spirit is right). — David Lynch
