Chiara Boschis - E. Pira & Figli - E. Pira & Figli
- country
- Italy
- region
- Barolo DOCG, Langhe Nebbiolo DOC, Barbera d'Alba DOC, Dolcetto d'Alba DOC
- vineyard area
- 11 ha
- Floor
- Lime, clay
- Grape varieties
- Barbera, Dolcetto, Nebbiolo
- Management
- Biological
Chiara Boschi's ancestors founded the Borgogno winery in 1761, one of the oldest and most traditional wineries in Piedmont. Since the winemaking profession was still unusual for women 30 years ago, the brothers Giorgio and Cesare were supposed to take over the management. Chiara, on the other hand, decided to study business administration in Turin and initially worked as a management consultant. Nevertheless, she always felt that her true destiny awaited her in the hills of Barolo.
After the death of Luigi Pira, the traditional family winery in Barolo faced an uncertain future. Luigi Pira was a legend during his lifetime and the last winemaker in Barolo who still stamped his grapes with his feet. Gigi's two sisters were close friends of the Boschis-Borgogno family and asked them for help with wine production. In 1981, Chiara convinced her parents to take out a mortgage to purchase the E. Pira winery and its vineyards. Her family took care of production until 1990, when Chiara finally took over the management.
For several years she tasted wines with winemaker and oenologist friends like Giorgio Rivetti, who later revolutionized the Barolo style. The story and influence of the “Barolo Boys” have shaped Piedmont and the Italian wine world so much that it was made into a film.
The E. Pira winery gave her the opportunity to create modern wines and distance herself from her family's traditional methods, which had been practiced for centuries. She relies on green harvesting, shorter mash fermentation and develops her wines in small French oak barrels, so-called barriques. Their first wine, the 1990 Barolo Riserva Cannubi, was a huge success and won the coveted Tre Bicchieri (three glasses) award, the highest honor for wine excellence, which only 2% of all wines receive.
Chiara's passion and focus is on her vineyards and soils. She consistently relies on sustainable practices, avoids chemical fertilizers and pesticides and converted the winery to organic farming in 2010. Since 2022, the estate's wines have carried the coveted "Robert Parker Green Emblem", an award for sustainability and environmental protection, awarded by the renowned wine critic "The Wine Advocate". Particularly noteworthy is her project "Cannubi Biologico", in which she aims to convert all 28 farmers who work in the 46 hectare Cannubi MGA site (one of the most prestigious sites in Barolo) to organic farming. Chiara Boschis pursues this project with determination and compares it to a drop of water that can shatter a huge rock.
She ran the property alone for twenty years until her family sold the Borgogno winery in 2008. In 2010, her brother Giorgio, his wife Daniella and their three daughters joined Pira, bringing not only a welcome division of labor but also a next generation of female successors. With her brother Giorgio, Chiara was able to purchase a beautiful old vineyard in Monforte in the Mosconi area. They also added several small plots between Monforte and Serralunga: Ravera di Monforte, Le Coste di Monforte and Gabutti and Baudana in Serralunga.
Chiara's Barolo Via Nuova, which until 2008 came from a single vineyard in the Terlo area, became a classic Barolo blend from all of their vineyards (with the exception of Cannubi). In 2009 her first single vineyard Mosconi Barolo was released.
"The range of single-vineyard wines available is first-class and ranges from the highly famous Cannubi to the interesting Via Nuova to the Mosconi, which comes from an important property in the municipality of Monforte d'Alba." GAMBERO ROSSO
The current total production on the estate has grown, but even now it stands at a tiny three thousand cases!
Giorgio's arrival brought further innovative developments at Pira: since the early 2000s, Chiara had reduced the proportion of new oak in her wines, first to 80%, then to 70% and finally to just 50%. Giorgio's classical influence pushed this even further. By 2008, the wooden aging for the Barolo had been changed to 1/3 new, 1/3 one year old and 1/3 two years old. The first large barrels followed in 2010. Alcoholic fermentation takes place in temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks with native yeasts and usually lasts up to two weeks. Malolactic fermentation also takes place in steel, after which the wine is stored in oak barrels for 24 months. The Barolos are not fined or filtered before bottling to keep the wine as authentic as possible.
Chiara Boschis is valued by the wine world as a visionary rebel and the first female winemaker in the Langhe region.
