The Plains - Boca DOC 2018

The Le Piane winery is located in Boca, in the province of Novara, in the heart of Alto Piemonte, one of Italy's most fascinating and overlooked wine-growing regions, now experiencing a remarkable wine renaissance.

The project began in the 1990s thanks to Christoph Künzli , a Swiss entrepreneur and wine enthusiast, who discovered the area through winemaker Antonio Cerri, the last custodian of the local winemaking tradition. After Cerri's death, Künzli took over the vineyards and winery, breathing new life into a previously abandoned terroir.

The territory

Boca is a small municipality nestled between hills and woods, where the vines grow between 400 and 500 metres above sea level on volcanic soils: red porphyries, rich in minerals, which give the wines tension, verticality and depth.

The climate is Alpine-continental: temperature ranges, cool summers and late harvests allow for slow ripening, with balanced acidity and structure.

The vines

The undisputed king is Nebbiolo , also called Spanna here, often accompanied by small percentages of Vespolina and Croatina , native varieties that add spice, colour and vivacity.

The style

Le Piane wines are elegant, profound, taut, and long-lived. Nothing forced, just a pure expression of the terroir. Spontaneous fermentations, long aging in large oak barrels, and a non-interventionist approach reminiscent of the Burgundian school.

Boca DOC is the best-known label from the "Le Piane" winery in Boca.

"Boca" is a controlled designation of origin in Alto Piemonte that includes the homonymous municipality of Boca in its entirety and parts of some neighboring municipalities such as Maggiora, Cavallirio, Prato Sesia and Grignasco.

As per its name, it is made from 85% Nebbiolo grapes and the remaining part from Vespolina, a native grape from the Alto Piemonte area.

The destemmed grapes are crushed and placed in wooden vats (30-45hl) where they ferment without added yeasts, with manual punching down, followed by maceration for 50-60 days. During racking, the free-run wine and the press wine (vertical press) are placed directly into large barrels where they undergo malolactic fermentation in the spring. They are racked only a few times and aged in barrels for 3 to 5 years (depending on the vintage) until bottling, without filtration or clarification.

Grapes: 85% Nebbiolo / 15% Vespolina

Vineyards: Average yield per hectare 30-40 quintals/ha.
Vineyards are 30 years old, one in Traversagna, in the municipality of Prato Sesia, at an altitude of 400-450 meters above sea level (0.4 hectares), and the other in Piane (Antonio Cerri's old vineyard), which is over 50 years old, at 420-470 meters above sea level (0.3 hectares). Vineyards are trained in rows with approximately 2,000 plants per hectare using the simple Guyot system. Newly planted vineyards (1998-2004) in the most suitable areas of Boca (Mottosergo, Meridiana, Valvecchi, and Traversagna). Modern training system with rows of approximately 5,000 plants per hectare using the Guyot Poulsard system. The soils have a low pH and consist entirely of slightly red porphyry gravel (of volcanic origin), full of minerals.

Winemaking: Fermentation and maceration on the skins for 30 days in a 25hl open wooden vat and in 20hl open stainless steel vats with manual punching down once or twice a day. Indigenous yeasts are used. After pressing, spontaneous malolactic fermentation (in spring) and maturation in large 20hl–28hl Slavonian oak barrels for three to four years, followed by bottle aging for one year.

“I have been here since 1998 because I believe in this region, historically suited to the production of fine wines.

Boca, which had been almost completely forgotten, is now being awarded top marks by the most important guides in Italy and around the world. I would like to thank all those who, with dedication and determination, believed in and supported our ideas.

- Christoph Kunzli

We met Antonio Cerri, one of the last producers of those years (he was 80 years old), who, with his vineyard and his old wines, convinced us to continue his adventure. We purchased from him what I still consider to be the core of "Le Piane" and continued by purchasing many small plots of woodland to then form blocks of vineyards of at least one and a half hectares in the best locations of the BOCA DOC region.

Today, based on that project, “Le Piane” owns 10 hectares of vineyards, both new and old, all productive.