Boca

S

Saina Nieminen

Saina Nieminen
Az. Ag. Le Piane Boca DOC 2005 - 13% abv; at least 60% Nebbiolo, the rest mostly Vespolina and a little Bonarda
Boca used to be a highly regarded region in Piemonte in the 19th Century, but for some reason it fell out of favor. Le Piane have tried to resurrect the wine from the area and if this wine is anything to go by, they are doing a pretty good job!

I am glad to see that resuscitating an area isn't in this case synonymous with making bland, boring, oaky wine. The wine is aged for 3-4 years in large casks, so there is gladly no oak interference to my pleasure. It smells wonderfully of junipers and bright red berries; a little like tar and loam, too. It seems like a classically styled Barolo on the nose, which I thought a little strange since it has such a large percentage of Vespalina blended with the Nebbiolo. But apparently Vespalina is very closely related to Nebbiolo so I guess the aromatic profiles might then be very similar?

Lovely palate, too. Lighter bodied than most Barolos I have had, but it has intense and deep flavors; it is pleasantly crisp, deeply tannic and crunchy and is extremely moreish.

2005 was a difficult vintage in Boca, too, with an abnormally hot summer ended by a deluge in September. But this wine doesn't seem to suffer from it: it isn't raisiny or pruney, but neither is it dilute. It's seriously good wine and the only "problem" I see with it is that it needs more age.

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Check out Castello Conti for aged examples of traditional style Boca. '88, '89, and '90 have all been recently offered in the New York market (admittedly, not where you are).

I like Le Piane, and I liked their 2006 in addition to th 2005. The 2006 was a little thicker in texture, I thought.
 
originally posted by Levi Dalton:
Check out Castello Conti for aged examples of traditional style Boca. '88, '89, and '90 have all been recently offered in the New York market (admittedly, not where you are).

I like Le Piane, and I liked their 2006 in addition to th 2005. The 2006 was a little thicker in texture, I thought.
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Lucky you. Would really like to taste some aged Boca. I think Kuenzli is doing a great job with Le Piane. The wines aren't cheap, but with regard to the effort being put into the vineyard and winery still a relative bargain.
 
Le Pianes wines are very good indeed. There is also a cuvee with Croatina as the main grape that is very interesting.

On older Bocas, Vallanas Spanna Traversagna and Castello di Montalbano were from vineyards within the Boca-zone.
 
We had a little Le Piane 81, 86, 90, 91, 89, 95 pass through here last year. They were bottlings from the late Antonio Cerri from whom Christoph Kunzli purchased the property in Boca. The wines had been in botti for many, many years and were later bottled by Christoph. I tasted with him all these library/historical wines last year around this time. The wines arrived and i really enjoyed them though there were some very big bottle variances that some customers found too difficult to handle. They were admittedly delicate but when they were on they were really special. A bit of a dice roll. All in all a really cool way to taste these older, historic wines from a great producer and the gentleman farmer that Cerri was.
 
Thanks for the note, I got 3 bottles of this last year, and haven't opened one yet. Sounds like I should try to resist the temptation for now.
 
I had a '96 Castello Conti @ Per Bacco in SF a few weeks ago and it was in great form. Great price too.

I've been wanting to try Podere ai Valloni, but my sole '97 bottle I bought in Novara was corked. Anyone have experience with this producer?
 
I really like Christoph Künzli's wines. The Croatina cuvée is called 'Piane'. The 2008s from barrel/tank were fantastic, and he has another cuvée of 2007 yet to be bottled as well. 2006 Boca very pretty after about 5-6 hours open. We had the '84 made by Ceri last week (and bottled in '95) - oxidised on the nose but quite good on the palate, like so many older wines.

Good guy as well, very engaging and lots of fun to be with.

I find myself leaning more and more towards northerly nebbiolo - Donnaz, Lessona, Bramaterra, Gattinara, Boca and (to the far east) Valtellina. Not sure why that is; maybe I'm just getting old.
 
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
Mountain wine. Drink Valle d'Aosta!
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Not much Nebbiolo in the western bit, and I don't really count Donnaz as Aosta.

There is a very interesting Cornalin, but fewer bottles than VLM gets through in a year, plus half the production is going to Singapore.
 
originally posted by Yixin:

I find myself leaning more and more towards northerly nebbiolo - Donnaz, Lessona, Bramaterra, Gattinara, Boca and (to the far east) Valtellina. Not sure why that is; maybe I'm just getting old.
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Put in Ghemme to cover the wines of Cantalupo and I agree too. I find myself drinking more and more these northernly nebbiolos. I have no clue about Donnaz though. Which producer(s) do you recommend?
 
Ah, Cantalupo...good memories. How are the recent wines? I saw some abandoned vineyards in the area - really heartbreaking.

Donnaz? The co-op's pretty good (especially the basic stuff, I try to stay away from whatever marketing idea they dream up from time to time), everyone else I found hugely variable. But all based on quick tastings only, and I don't even know how many of them (i.e. individual producers) really do it as a full-time job (or export).

I should add that the vineyard work looked pretty good, although they seemed to prune for pretty high yields in a dense environment. They say the vines can take it, so who am I to judge?
 
originally posted by Yixin:
Ah, Cantalupo...good memories. How are the recent wines? I saw some abandoned vineyards in the area - really heartbreaking.

Donnaz? The co-op's pretty good (especially the basic stuff, I try to stay away from whatever marketing idea they dream up from time to time), everyone else I found hugely variable. But all based on quick tastings only, and I don't even know how many of them (i.e. individual producers) really do it as a full-time job (or export).

I should add that the vineyard work looked pretty good, although they seemed to prune for pretty high yields in a dense environment. They say the vines can take it, so who am I to judge?
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Thanks, have to see if I can find some Donnaz.

Cantalupo - I have not tasted Ghemme newer than '04, but they pretty much have continued like they were in the 90's. Great standard Ghemme, tough single-vineyards from Carellae and Breclamae, slightly more modern Ghemme in the Bayard and the Agamium still great QPR and Il mimo is still a favorite summer-sipper.
 
Perbacco currently has a good selection of the Castello Conti Bocas going back to 1985. I had the 1990 last night and it was enjoyable although found a little bitterness that I thought might have been due to the non-Nebbiolo grapes, and the wine still remained somewhat tannic. Otherwise, the Nebbiolo tar and roses came through to provide a fine pair to Perbacco's always excellent food. But one of the Valtellinas at half the price might have been even better.
 
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