Barbaglia Winery: Producing wine within the reclamation project that is Alto Piemonte's Boca DOC

Nebbiolo is arguably Italy's noblest grape, renowned for its iconic manifestations in Barolo and Barbaresco, two of the world's best known and most beloved wines.But southern Piemonte, while the home of the best Nebbiolo wines, is not the only Piemonte growing region that has experience with the variety. In the Vercelli-Novara region of Alto Piemonte (shown in the red circle in the map below) the Nebbiolo grape-- called Spanna therein -- is also viewed fondly by "native" winemakers, notwithstanding the fact that its wines differ markedly from that of its better-known brethren to the south.

Figure1. Selected Alto Piemonte provinces
(Source:fassinomobilaire.com map; author modification)

Writing in winemag.com, Kerin O'Keefe stated thusly:

... Alto Piemonte is one of the most fascinating areas in Italy ... the area produces vibrant, fragrant and structured reds known for elegance and longevity. Alto Piemonte's five main denominations -- have higher vineyard altitudes and cooler temperatures than their more famous southern neighbors, Barolo and Barbaresco. But it's the soils that are unique. Lessona has bright-yellow, mineral-rich soil of marine origin, while Boca, Gattinara and Bramaterra have different proportions of porphyritic soils deposited by the eruptions from an ancient, long-extinct supervolcano.

And it is in this region, in the appellation Boca DOC, in the town of Cavallirio, in the province of Novara, that we find Barbaglia Winery, a 6-ha estate that the family (of the same name) continues to reclaim from the surrounding bush and the remnants of a once expansive grape-growing region. I recently chatted with Silvia, daughter to the estate owner, and a key part of the winery infrastructure, about the region, the winery, and the wines. I report on that conversation herein.

This part of Piemonte is comprised of three provinces and seven historical Nebbiolo areas. Silvia pointed out the contrasts in the surrounding environment with rice fields 10 kilometers from where they are located while Monte Rosa is in close proximity.

The area was an intense grape-growing region -- akin to the Langhe, with grape vines everywhere -- prior to the industrialization of the 1950s. Boca was home to 1000 ha of vineyards 100 years ago but industrialization was perceived to be a less-stressful means of earning a living and a large number of farmers left the land to pursue this option. At the lowest point, only 7 ha of grapevines were being tended in Boca. Young people have recently begun moving back into the area to take up the historical trade of their grandfathers, resulting in 30 ha of vine currently being tended.

The seven different historical names of Nebbiolo in Alto Piemonte is because of soil changes, all within a 30-km area. Boca, Bramatera, and Gattinara all fall within the caldera of an ancient supervolcano. According to Silvia, Boca is all about rocks (friable), acidic soils, and minerality (I have gone outside of my conversation with Silvia to secure the information provided below which fleshes out the picture of Boca DOC.).

Silvia's grandfather founded the winery in 1946. When her father was 14 years old, his father registered him in the oenology school at Alba -- a 5-hour trip in the pre-motorway days. Her father took control of the estate when he was 20 years old after his father died in an automobile accident while delivering wine to Val d'Aosta. According to Silvia, her father is very shy so she began helping him in the public-facing tasks when she was 17 years old. She began expansion of the vineyard -- it was 1.5 ha when she launched her reclamation effort in 1999 -- when she was 22 years of age.

Barbaglia has 4.5 of its 6 ha planted to grape-producing vines and the remainder to young plants. The estate is staffed by her father (oenologist and administrative duties), her mother, herself (viticulture and sales), and one other full-time employee.

A lot of rain falls in the area. Silvia talked about 2020 being a rather difficult season up to the time that we had our conversation. They had had rain every day in the past month. This was the most rain that she had ever seen in her years working at the estate. They had even experienced some effects of the hail that had recently pummeled Barolo and Barbaresco. It is not an easy job farming in the area, what with the acidic soils, low yields, and plentiful rain.

It is very important that they pick the grapes at the right maturation. They pick on the basis of sugar content (they want alcohol potential of 13%) and acidity. They also do test-wines with grapes sampled from various areas in the vineyard as part of the input to the decision-making process.

Silvia was tasting a white wine and the Boca DOC during the course of our conversation. The white wine was the Lucino Colline Novaresi DOC, a wine made exclusively from the Erbaluce grape, the variety most well known as the source of the Erbaluce di Caluso DOCG wine. This wine is fermented in stainless steel (lengthy fermentation) and then bottled. They retain 4 to 5 grams of sugar in the final wine in order to help offset the brisk acidity. It needs a lot of time before being ready to drink so is not released to the market until one or two years after harvest. Her father, she says, is a white wine drinker in a red wine area; he makes this wine for himself. The one that she was tasting was salty, with mineral and balsamic notes.

Erbaluce has great potential for dry, sparkling and dessert wines. They currently make a brut and a zero-dosage metodo classico sparkling wine from Erbaluce. They also make a Rosé sparkling wine from the Uva Rara grape every two years.

Uva Rara is a red grape which is very good for making young wines. It is lighter in color, same color as Alto Piemonte Nebbiolo, as a matter of fact, and has good tannin and acidity. Those facts, and the contrastingly deep colors of Croatina and Vespolina, informs the decision to use Uva Rara as the source grape for the Rosé sparkling wine. The grape is also used in the estate's Colline Novaresi DOC Uva Rara wine.

Croatina is a spicy red grape which imbues its wines with a healthy dose of tannins. They age it in wood for a year to round out the tannins. Silvia says that it is good with meats as it clears the palate. It is used in the estate's Colline Novaresi DOC Croatina wine.

Vespolina is one of her favorite wines. It is one of the few spicy grapes in Italy and only 10 producers in the area do a 100% Vespolina wine. Vespolina is the other grape used in the Boca DOC wine.

Nebbiolo, called Spanna in this region, is the main contributor to Boca DOC, providing anywhere from 10 - 30% of blend. Nebbiolo is the very reflection of its terroir and, grown in Alto Piemonte, is much lighter in color than its southern counterparts. According to Silvia, while the variety brings fruit notes to the blend, Vespolina brings spiciness and deep color.

As has been happening across Italy and Spain, young people are returning to the lands that their granfathers farmed, bringing new energy, new skills, and a new determination and resurrecting the fortunes of their regions in the process. Matched up with the foregoing is the consumer search for new varieties and regions along with a thirst for authenticity. These trends bode well for the producers in Boca DOC and the broader Alto Piemonte region.

Barbaglia is a small producer but its winemaker is well respected for the quality of its wines. That perception of quality is an important contributor to the resurrection of the region. Silvia is contributing to that resurrection by reclaiming vines from the bush for her family's vineyard, as well as through the work that her viticulture company does to assist the grape-growing efforts of other producers in the area.

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