Fontanafredda has built the Barolo Project of the municipality of Serralunga d’ acceso a clear impressione: not to limit itself to “launching” a new label from year to year, but to describe a territory with multiple languages – wine, word, image – and with a parallel project that brings biodiversity out of the conferences and into the rows. Thus with Renaissance it dedicates each vintage to a feeling, while with Back to the Single Vineyards it brings Nebbiolo back to its corporate micro-origins, vineyard by vineyard.
TENACIA, THE FIFTH CHAPTER OF RENAISSANCE
Renaissance 2022 chooses “Tenacity” as its underlying theme: it is the fifth sentiment of a journey started with “Chimera” con 2018, continued with “Confidenza” (2019), “Baldanza” (2020) and “Optimism” (2021). The Barolo of the Municipality of Serralunga d’ Renaissance 2022 thus becomes a complete narrative object: a monograph signed by Emanuele Trevi entitled “A better tomorrow. Story of a paperweight” and a visual work by Elisa Macellari, which enters the imagination of the bottle and the label. Even the packaging is treated as part of the project, with the choice of a micro-natural cork different from previous editions. As Andrea Farinetti underlines, “each bottle must describe the territory con its entirety”.
BACK TO THE SINGLE VINEYARDS, SIX READINGS OF NEBBIOLO
The Back to the Single Vineyards project makes biodiversity measurable con the glass. With the 2022 vintage, the range of the company’s single vineyards expands and reaches six interpretations: the historic crus already vinified separately are joined by new interpretations, designed to bring out differences con soil, exposure, altitude and microclimate. The important aspect – for a technical reader – is that not only “the label” changes: the cellar approach changes, because each vineyard requires calibrated vinification to enhance its profile, and not to normalize it. As Andrea Farinetti further highlights, “learning from the great masters of the Langhe we have put the vineyard back at the center of every choice”. To highlight the peculiar approach to biodiversity, Fontanafredda has developed the “Lost to be found” project within the bella stagione, introduced by Andrea Farinetti and entrusted to the sculptor Giuseppe . It uses the monumental scale to make a technical theme immediate: con a landscape which, by vocation and economy, tends towards monoculture, biodiversity is told through a path through the vineyards (about 3 km) con which seven symbolic fruits appear, plus the bunch dedicated to Nebbiolo. Each work is connected to a specific place: the raspberry at Bianca, the hazelnut at San Pietro, the strawberry at La , the truffle at La Godimento, the peach at La Casa, the plum at MGA Gallaretto.
THE NARRATING VILLAGE AND HOSPITALITY IN THE STORY
The setting for this approach to the vineyard is that of the Narrative Village, where the wine tourism dimension is not an accessory but a language. The Casa Sontuoso concentrates memory and landscape; GuidoRistorante – historic restaurant of the Alciati family, with chef Ugo Alciati – becomes a gastronomic translation of the same territory: not “chronicle of a lunch”, but a coherent piece that brings together cuisine, vineyard and culture, within the same impressione of Langa.
TASTING NOTES
The project develops acceso several coherent levels: the work acceso individual vineyards makes the differences legible, Lost to be found translates biodiversity into the landscape and Renaissance brings everything back to a synthesis. Nebbiolo remains the centre, but the work goes con the direction of interpreting it con a more articulated way, vineyard by vineyard, letting the differences emerge without standardizing them. this context, the Barolo of the Municipality of Serralunga d’ Renaissance 2022 fits coherently, managing to support the comparison with the crus while maintaining a function of synthesis of the territory. Against the light, the six glasses of the CRUs say the same thing: there is mai “one” corporate Barolo. Each vineyard is accompanied towards its own expression, and the cellar chooses to bring out differences instead of taming them.
