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Community Review

Fontanafredda Contessa Rosa 2012

Alta Langa, Italy

Community Score: 4.5/5
Community Reviews: 15

Price: $40.00

Sweetness: Extra Dry
Alcohol: 12%

Drink: 2012-2020

Bottle size: 750 ml
Winery: Fontanafredda

Greg Hughes rated this wine as 91/100 with the following review:

This is an interesting wine. Traditionally made sparkling from the heart pf the region that gave the world Barbaresco, Barolo, Moscato D'Asti, and so much more. A fun fact about this wine is that it contains a time percentage of 1967 Barolo as dosage.
It has a very pale rosé colour to it. Maceration was short. Chard only composes 30% of this blend. The mousse is creamy and very persistent.
Because it is Pinot dominated, expect vitality and fresh fruit to take center stage instead of body.
The wines must spend at least thirty months on lees for this appellation. That means this wine has picked up a lot of smokey lees. There's blood orange, quinine, hay, cornflower, calcium carbonate, and raspberry on the nose.
The flavous are driven by tremendous acidity amd freshness to the fruit. The secondary lees character is beginning to mesh with the red berries and tart citrus of this wine. It is very fine, but young.
This region's wines are highly regarded for their aromatic character. The mixture of calcareous, sand, and volcanic soils also means they have the perfect spot for growing Chard and Pinot vines that make complex and interesting wines. This DOCG style is always vintage dated and even though this wine is already half a decade old, it has plenty of vitality left. Save this one, for a special occasion, for the next ten years. Today, it would pair very nice with pasta carbonara or swordfish.

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