Marchese Umberto Fracassi Ratti Mentone is the sole producer of a Barolo from the Cherasco sub-zone of Italy's Piemonte region. His family has owned vineyard land in the Cherasco area for centuries, and the Marchese, who is now over 80 years old, tends to the family parcel at the edge of the Barolo zone.

This is a rare encounter with the Marchese, who rarely grants interviews. The conversation ranges across decades and even centuries of history in the Piemonte, covering the Roman period, the reign of the Savoy Dukes, World War II, and the great growth of Barolo production in the last few decades.

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