Fontanabianca, Az. Agr.

From Barbaresco’s comune di Neive comes this exciting 15ha property, owned & run by the Pola family. The name ‘Fontanabianca’ is derived from the pozzo/well that lies below the cantina, on the northern side of the village. It was nonno Franco who first started bottling their Barbarescos in 1970, followed by his son Aldo in 1982. Aldo married Luisella (Chiola) from nearby Serracapelli, & now it’s the turn of their (second) son Matteo (nato ’91), who’s been working alongside his father on an increasing basis since 2013. It was in vintage 2017 that Matteo gave up his post at the ABC Laboratory in Alba & switched full time to the family business. Matteo is largely in the cantina, while papa Aldo prefers the vigneti.

In 2017 the family rebuilt the now spacious cantina, that sits above their old vine Bordini vineyard at 280m asl facing ES on soft sandy calc clay soils, of which 1ha comprises 70+ yo ungrafted Nebbiolo vines that goes into the single vineyard Barbaresco Bordini. Since 2008 they have also rented 0.82ha of 35yo vines from Neive’s prized Serraboella cru at 310m asl, steeply facing SW on white marne & iron, Serravallian soils. They also make a classic Barbaresco blend from younger Bordini vines, below the cantina & from the versante opposite called ‘Montesommo’.

Vinification is classic, fermenting the Nebbiolo da Barbaresco fruit in either stainless-steel or tini di legno for circa 13 – 25 days, with remontaggio & delestaggio, followed by malolactic in cement tanks, & affinamento/elevage mostly botti grandi, but also a small part of used barriques (in the case of the classic Barbaresco).

Vintage 2017 was also the year they also installed three wooden 35HL tini, switched the entire range of Barbarescos to DIAM30 corks, & the rest of the range to DIAM5. The wines are traditionally bottled using total c.100mg/litro (c.35mg/litro free) of sulphur.

Since 2013 the family stopped using herbicides, & from 2016 they’ve signed up to the environmentally-friendly ‘Green Experience’ in looking after their vineyards.