Winemaker Notes
Chiara is an artisan grower whose philosophy is to craft wines that combine the extraordinary power of Barolo with approachability, balance, intense aromatics, and elegance.
Professional Ratings
-
Jeb Dunnuck
The 2020 Barolo Via Nuova takes on a more introspective and serious tone, with more concentration and dark berry notes of black raspberry and cherry as well as dark earth and menthol. It is fresh on the palate, with significantly more concentration from the vintage, with cherry, tea leaf, and turned soil. (I love how each vintage is so transparent as a lens into the different nature of any given year’s climate and conditions.) This is the most muscular of the wines. Hold this one and drink 2026-2046.
-
James Suckling
Bright and complex nose showing excellent depth and complexity. Expect to find fresh strawberries, white pepper, stones, fine herbs, chalk and even a touch of mezcal. Broad and zesty on the palate with fine, chalky tannins driving it to a long and ample finish. From organically grown grapes. Drink or hold.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The E. Pira e Figli - Chiara Boschis 2020 Barolo Via Nuova opens to a little more dark fruit and ripe berry in this vintage. The wine is buttoned up from all sides into a tight little package of aromas. You get orange peel, bright cherry and a fragrant springtime fruit blossom. There are hints of herb, tar, violet and chalky mineral. The tannins are finely polished and smooth.
-
Wine Spectator
A rich, ripe style, boasting cherry, raspberry, iron, tobacco, herb and spice flavors. This is dense, with aggressive tannins tipping the balance slightly in their favor, yet remains long and full of fruit to the end, with fine length.
Responsible for some of the most elegant and age-worthy wines in the world, Nebbiolo, named for the ubiquitous autumnal fog (called nebbia in Italian), is the star variety of northern Italy’s Piedmont region. Grown throughout the area, as well as in the neighboring Valle d’Aosta and Valtellina, it reaches its highest potential in the Piedmontese villages of Barolo, Barbaresco and Roero. Outside of Italy, growers are still very much in the experimentation stage but some success has been achieved in parts of California. Somm Secret—If you’re new to Nebbiolo, start with a charming, wallet-friendly, early-drinking Langhe Nebbiolo or Nebbiolo d'Alba.
The center of the production of the world’s most exclusive and age-worthy red wines made from Nebbiolo, the Barolo wine region includes five core townships: La Morra, Monforte d’Alba, Serralunga d’Alba, Castiglione Falletto and the Barolo village itself, as well as a few outlying villages. The landscape of Barolo, characterized by prominent and castle-topped hills, is full of history and romance centered on the Nebbiolo grape. Its wines, with the signature “tar and roses” aromas, have a deceptively light garnet color but full presence on the palate and plenty of tannins and acidity. In a well-made Barolo wine, one can expect to find complexity and good evolution with notes of, for example, strawberry, cherry, plum, leather, truffle, anise, fresh and dried herbs, tobacco and violets.
There are two predominant soil types here, which distinguish Barolo from the lesser surrounding areas. Compact and fertile Tortonian sandy marls define the vineyards farthest west and at higher elevations. Typically the Barolo wines coming from this side, from La Morra and Barolo, can be approachable relatively early on in their evolution and represent the “feminine” side of Barolo, often closer in style to Barbaresco with elegant perfume and fresh fruit.
On the eastern side of the Barolo wine region, Helvetian soils of compressed sandstone and chalks are less fertile, producing wines with intense body, power and structured tannins. This more “masculine” style comes from Monforte d’Alba and Serralunga d’Alba. The township of Castiglione Falletto covers a spine with both soil types.
The best Barolo wines need 10-15 years before they are ready to drink, and can further age for several decades.