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Bold, beautiful barolo steals hearts

Jane Faulkner

Lady in red: Chiara Boschis and her majestic barolo.
Lady in red: Chiara Boschis and her majestic barolo.Supplied

Piedmontese winemaker Chiara Boschis has heard it all before: that she makes elegant barolo because she's a woman. Rolling her eyes, she cheekily raises her hand in a one-fingered salute.

At her winery, E. Pira & Figli in the heart of Barolo, the name of the town that gives rise to one of the world's greatest wines – a majestic red made entirely from nebbiolo – Boschis has selected a vertical tasting, not of her more famous Cannubi barolo, but Via Nuova from 2001 to '10 as part of the annual wine event, Nebbiolo Prima.

Held over five days earlier this year, Nebbiolo Prima comprised morning tastings of en primeur barolo and barbaresco. That is barolo 2009 and riserva 2007; barbaresco 2010 and its riserva 2008; plus roero 2010 and riserva 2009. All up, that's 389 young, super tannic and acidic wines, served blind and tasted before lunch – it's taxing. Palate fatigue, a numbness with a dose of delirium, sets in after the 20th wine.

Afternoons are directed towards informative producer visits – also recovery time – as many incorporate tastings of aged barolo or barbaresco. It makes a world of difference.

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Barolo and barbaresco are contemplative, serious wines and, at their best, are ethereal and mesmerising as they unfurl with age. Such wines are rightly regarded as Italy's most expressive in terms of their terroir, very much like Burgundy.

Boschis farms six hectares sustainably and organically, producing 12,000 bottles of artisan wine, including the other famous Piedmontese reds, barbera and dolcetto. Volume is not on her agenda.

"I was part of a group of winemakers that pushed the concept of single vineyards," she says. "Terroir is our most important expression, exactly like Burgundy, and we were proud to show our diversity."

Boschis says the group – dubbed the "modernists", a word she dislikes – created a big bang, "an earthquake" that rocked the establishment. The group used French barriques, instead of Slavonian botte (large barrels), and temperature-controlled stainless steel vats to better handle fermentation. But more than anything, it was the work in the vineyard that set them apart. The attention became focused on those vineyards, and crus were vinified separately to preserve the purity and difference of each site in the wine, "rather than being compared to the more homogeneous [barolo] blend", Boschis says.

She recalls that when she first started green harvesting, dropping unripe fruit on the ground in order to produce quality and more concentrated flavours in the remaining grapes, people were horrified. They thought her crazy and told her father as much. They, and he, couldn't understand, thinking it tantamount to throwing money away.

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"The old farmers were shocked seeing the fruit wasted, thinking it took so much effort to grow," she says. "But drastic reduction of the yields for young vines was important [for quality]."

While Boschis comes from a family of producers, she has been making her own wine for more than 23 years, changing with the times to produce expressive barolo.

"As a woman, I have been told my wines are elegant because of my hands but I know that it's the soil that makes the wines, so I was curious to see how I could make a barolo with structure yet with fineness," she says, referring to her latest Mosconi wine.

When her brother Giorgio joined the company in 2009, they were able to buy a four-hectare property in the commune Monforte d'Alba, home of the Mosconi vineyard and its 50-year-old vines. In the winery, Boschis doesn't overextract. The fruit is always pristine and handled gently, and she is particularly attuned to tannin management.

The tannins in her three barolos – Cannubi, Mosconi and Via Nuova – are precise and contained. All are different expressions of nebbiolo and are single-vineyard wines, well, except the latter now. And it is for the better.

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A new regulation – yes, another Italian wine law – came into effect in 2010 and affects barolo from that vintage onwards. The agriculture commission wanted to reduce the number of crus and classify those vineyards, apparently making it easier for consumers, although I doubt this. The criticism being it's a mere list rather than a true classification and some historic vineyards have been sucked up and rezoned into much larger areas, ostensibly disappearing. Also, barolos that are blends from several crus can only mention one on the label; some of the greatest are blends – think those from Bartolo Mascarello and Giuseppe Rinaldi. Another, perhaps equally confusing, option is to make up a proprietary name. Ironically, Via Nuova had morphed into that.

Via Nuova is no longer a single-vineyard wine. It has been delimited and, with another site Sebastiano, has been absorbed and is now part of the Terlo vineyard, the official classified name. That makes sense. However, Boschis registered the moniker Via Nuova and it became a blend as of the 2009 vintage, which has just arrived in Australia. It is an assemblage of fruit grown in Barolo plus vineyards she has in Serralunga and Monforte. Not surprisingly, at the Via Nuova vertical tasting, the blends were far more complete, despite their youth.

As a single vineyard, Via Nuova lacked a certain depth and structure – still a very good wine – the 2004, the '06 especially, and the '08 stood out in the bracket, but the yet-to-be released 2010 is a knockout. A barrel sample and therefore an unfinished wine, yet it already has grace and power with a vibrant core of juicy fruit, chalky powerful tannins and a persistent finish. It's the sum of its parts – a blend of six parcels of fruit from those three aforementioned communes. The wine has presence.

And the 2009 has lovely floral notes, especially violets, spice, a very fine nose, ripe round and long tannins with plenty of cleansing acidity. It's immediately pleasing, a riper style reflecting the vintage, yet balanced. Across the region, the '09 vintage is by no means classic – it's a warm one with medium-term cellaring potential. Overall, the Nebbiolo Prima tasting did reveal fresh fruit rather than stewed fruit characters witnessed in many 2003 wines, a crucifying hot vintage.

"I vinify the crus separately and then blend in early summer for Via Nuova," Boschis says. "I really like the blend because it brings together all the characters of each different terroir: the elegance and perfume from Barolo, the power and colour from Monforte, the tannins and length from Serralunga."

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New arrivals

The 2009 barolos from E. Pira e Figli Chiara Boschis are now selling in Australia. The Via Nuova and Mosconi are $145 and the Cannubi is $160. For stockists, see trembathandtaylor.com.au

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