Pira E. & Figli Chiara Boschis E. PIRA E FIGLI CHIARA BOSCHIS Barolo Via Nuova 2019

Description

The E. Pira e Figli di Chiara Boschis Barolo Via Nuova 2019 represents the core of production from this historic winery located in Barolo. “Via Nuova” was actually the small plot where the Pira vineyards were located, along the new road that connected Barolo to Novello in the last century. Today, that road still exists but has transformed into a pathway that traverses the vineyards and is only accessible on foot. However, Chiara and Giorgio Boschis’ passion for wine purity, their land, and the naturalness of the production processes from vineyard to cellar remains intact. The Chiara Boschis Barolo Via Nuova 2019 is a representative wine obtained from the blending of six distinct crus from Barolo, Monforte, and Serralunga. It is a deep, rich, and intense wine with persistent notes of undergrowth, dried leaves, roots, and violets. The tannins are solid and elegant.

Nel 1980, the legendary Gigi Pira, owner of the E. Pira winery in Barolo, passed away without any heirs. Gigi’s two sisters were friends with the Boschis-Borgogno family, and they asked them for help in continuing the production of the wines. In 1981, while still studying in Turin, Chiara convinced her mother and father to take out a mortgage to purchase the E. Pira winery and vineyards. While Chiara was completing her studies and professional experience in Turin, her family was involved in the production of Pira wines. However, in 1990, Chiara took the reins of the E. Pira winery and embarked on a bold and provocative path, contrasting centuries of traditional winemaking in her family. She employed green harvesting, shorter fermentations, and the use of small French oak barrels known as barriques. Her first wine, the 1990 Barolo Riserva Cannubi, immediately became a great success. Chiara Boschis now has eleven hectares of vineyards cultivated in the municipalities of Barolo, Serralunga, and Monforte d’Alba, and she holds the honor of being the first female winemaker in the Langhe region. She managed the estate essentially on her own for twenty years, but after the sale of Borgogno in 2008, her brother Giorgio, along with his wife Daniella and their three daughters, joined Chiara at E. Pira. Giorgio’s arrival also brought further developments to E. Pira. From the early years, Chiara had already reduced the amount of new barrels for her wines, first to 80%, then to 70%, and finally to only 50%. However, Giorgio’s traditionalist influence pushed for an even more massive reduction. By 2008, the aging in barriques for Barolo had become one-third new, one-third one-year-old, and one-third two-year-old, and then in 2010, the first large barrels arrived. Alcoholic fermentation takes place in temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks with indigenous yeasts and generally lasts up to two weeks. Malolactic fermentation occurs in steel, after which the wine is transferred to oak for 24 months. The Barolo is not filtered before bottling to maintain the wine’s integrity as much as possible. In her vineyards, Chiara has always worked without chemical fertilizers, herbicides, or pesticides, opting for the sustainable path of integrated pest management. But in 2010, she decided to push things further and began the conversion to organic certification. The 2014 vintage was her first as certified organic. However, Chiara didn’t stop there. She initiated a project called Cannubi Bio, and by 2015, she had already convinced 80% of the 26 producers in Cannubi to work organically.