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Love Potion #2013: Cascina Fontana Barolo di Castiglione Falletto

Love Potion #2013: Cascina Fontana Barolo di Castiglione Falletto

"The 2013 Barolo del Comune di Castiglione Falletto is the best Barolo I have tasted from Mario Fontana yet. A gorgeous, exquisitely layered wine, the 2013 is striking in its beauty, class and personality."
- Antonio Galloni of Vinous (October, 2017)

Cascina Fontana is traditional Barolo as would be celebrated by several generations past. If there's a Piedmont vintage that warrants Fontana's first ever single-comune bottling, 2013 is surely it. A magic moment where the shimmering focus on terroir meets the tension and deeply layered fruit that makes this the most intoxicating Barolo vintage since 2010.

Today, I'm happy to offer the 2013 Cascina Fontana Barolo del Comune di Castiglione Falletto for $95 per bottle, with special pricing on mixed 4-Packs featuring the 2010 & 2013 vintage.

The inspiration for the first release of this bottling is Mario Fontana's family roots. For six generations the Fontana family has farmed these sites, with Castiglione representing some of their most historic parcels. The Villero cru of Giacosa and Vietti fame is one of Barolo's top Grand Cru vineyards, and is the core component of Fontana's 2013 Castiglione Falletto cuvée.

As it's become quite clear over the years, the inky and bruising and/or sweet vanillin creamy styles of Barolo is not for me. I'm always looking for those producers who are most concerned with fine-ness and elegance without succumbing to tactics that can obscure terroir. Fontana simply gets it. Drinking each of the 2010 and 2013 wines offered today conjures benchmark Barolo producers for me like Bartolo Mascarello and Giuseppe Mascarello. 

Castiglione Falletto is never shy on power and concentration, but finding wines of balance in tannin, fruit, and acidity is always my prime objective. With Villero's compact clay soils wines have the ability to age alongside a very select group of topGrand Cru sites. Fontana's expression is one whose transparency and definition is wildly impressive, to say nothing about its fair price under $100 per bottle as compared to examples from names like Vietti and Giacosa which can start at $300 and rise sky high from there.

2013 is undoubtedly a very special vintage for Nebbiolo, with the combination of 2010 and 2008 immediately coming to mind. The classic proportions of both were evident, with the length and force of the former meeting the peerless grace of the latter. Less than 350 cases were produced of the 2013 Cascina Fontana Castiglione Falletto, with a very small portion making it to California.
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