Fontanabianca

"Family business" one could call the typical Piedmontese winery of the Polas. Papa Aldo and son Matteo take care of the winemaking, so to speak the cellar, the second son Davide takes care of the vineyards and Mama Luisella takes care of the organisation and the bookkeeping.

It all began in 1969 when grandfather Franco Pola and his friend Ottavio Ferro founded a small winery in Bordini. A tiny village near Neive in Piedmont, where one family ran a Salumeria and the other family sold it in their Alimentari.

The sons Aldo Pola and Bruno Ferro made such fine wines in the second generation that Fontanabianca quickly became a secret tip among wine lovers. This was mainly due to the fact that the two recognized the potential that was to be found in their Barbaresco top locations. "Bordini" and "serraboella" and worked out the elegance of this calcareous terroir. While Bordini is almost entirely south oriented and therefore produces slightly denser, fuller wines, Serraboella is exposed to the southwest and a little cooler.

Matteo Pola joined the company in 2016 after studying wine and a few years in a wine laboratory, when the Ferro family retired for reasons of age. Matteo loves the elegance and harmony between fruit, tannins and acidity in the wine and has therefore carefully changed the style: "In the late 1990s and 2000s, complexity was important, as ripeness meant harvesting as late as possible to reach high sugar levels. I prefer to harvest three or four days earlier, looking for the optimal degree of ripeness to achieve more elegance and freshness. I don't want aromas of overripe grapes in my wines."

The 2018 harvest also saw the completion of the new cellar, which over three floors, two of which are directly under the vineyard, enables gentler treatment without pumps. Matteo now also has more room for even more accurate selection, including large and small wooden barrels, when taking over the grapes, in order to be able to optimally develop the various batches. Arneis, Dolcetto, Barbera and Nebbiolo are cultivated. Four wines are made from Nebbiolo, one Langhe Nebbiolo, one "normal Barbaresco" - a selection of different sites, classically matured in large wooden barrels - and the two single sites (Cru): Barbaresco Serraboella, from approx. 15-20 year old vines, fermented in steel tanks and traditionally matured in large barrels for 15 months, as well as the "flagship" Barbaresco Bordini, from vines over 30 years old, allowed to mature for 15 months in small barrels (tonneaux and barriques).

And because his grandfather loved to drink sparkling wines so much, he was pleased to have produced a "blanc de blancs" Spumante Metodo Classico in classic bottle fermentation from Chardonnay, with almost zero residual sugar or dosage, which is now quite in demand. The vineyards are cultivated close to nature and for several years neither fertilizers nor chemical sprays have been used. SUPERIORE.DE