Fontanafredda

A winery with a history of kings

Fontanafredda is in Serralunga d'Alba, in the heart of the Barolo area, at Via Alba 15. Its history begins in 1858, when King Vittorio Emanuele II bought the estate, which later passed to Rosa Vercellana, the "Bela Rosin", his companion. In 1866 the king bought his first vineyard in Barolo. In 1878 Count Emanuele Alberto di Mirafiore founded the winery, which came to work more than 300 hectares. In 1887 it installed, according to the house itself, the first concrete fermentation vats in Europe, and around 1918 more than forty families lived on the estate, with a church, a school and a workers' club.

The crisis, phylloxera and the Great Depression forced it to be sold in the early thirties (the website gives 1930 and 1931) to the bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena. In 2008 Oscar Farinetti and other partners bought it, and it returned to Piedmontese hands after 77 years. In 2015 it began converting all its vineyards to organic farming, with the first certified harvest in 2018. Today the company is called Casa E. di Mirafiore & Fontanafredda.

The estate today

It manages more than 120 hectares of organic vineyard between Serralunga d'Alba, Barolo, Diano d'Alba, Dogliani and other villages of the Langhe, between 250 and 420 m above sea level, and looks after a 12-hectare wood, one of the last in the lower Langa. The wine ages in the nineteenth-century cellars, in large Slavonian or French oak barrels of 20 to 140 hectolitres; about 2.5 million bottles of Barolo mature there at once. As well as Barolo it makes Nebbiolo and Alta Langa sparkling wines by the traditional method.

The estate is part of the Villaggio Narrante, which the house presents as the first in Italy and which brings together visits, accommodation and restaurants. Its packages include nights at the Foresteria delle Vigne or the Cascina Galarej and dinners at Osteria Disguido or GuidoRistorante.

Visits and tastings

The visits tour the historic cellars and end with a three-wine tasting. There are four formats depending on what you taste: an introduction to the house, Barolo from Serralunga, Barolo from its historic vineyards or Alta Langa. The prices and details are in the offers on this page. The house also sells packages with lunch, a night on the estate, an electric-bike or Vespa ride through the vineyards, or a visit combined with the Borgogno winery, in Barolo.

The website does not publish the length of the visits, days and times, languages or cancellation policy, nor does it give a minimum age. It is best to ask when you book.

Booking

Experiences are bought online on the Villaggio Narrante website. For questions, the visits phone number is +39 0173 626 481 and the email, [email protected]. The winery's website is in Italian and English.