European Winery of the year 2017
Like all things of beauty, Fontanafredda was the result of a love story: In this case, between King Emmanuele II of Italy and his beloved Rosa Veracellana, “Bela Rosin”. The king bought the estate in the Fontanafredda district for his beloved (and later wife) and their children. To ensure their social standing he gave them a traditional title from Turin: the counts of Mirafiore. His son Count Emanuele di Mirafiore founded the vineyard in 1870 and began by marketing his wines from the Casa E. di Mirafiore house. But Fontanafredda was not just a vineyard: Emmanuele also had workers’ housing and a school built. The story of the Mirafiore family’s wine business came to a sad end in the ‘30s when it was sold to a bank during the global economic crisis. Today, 70 years later, it is once again owned by real Piedmontese: Baffigo and Farinetti.
