2024 E Pira Chiara Boschis Langhe Nebbiolo

Chiara Boschis is one of Barolo’s most compelling figures. She has led the historic E. Pira & Figli estate since 1990, among the first women to run a major Barolo house in a historically male-dominated region, and was a pivotal member of the “Barolo Boys,” the young producers who turned the Langhe upside down in the 1980s and 90s. She was at the forefront of the shift to small French barriques to tame Nebbiolo’s fierce tannins; today her style has settled into a middle ground of precision and tradition, with elegance and approachability still at its core.

She describes her three Barolos as having different souls. Cannubi, from the most famous hill in Barolo, grows on sandy, calcareous soil and is her “ballerina on her toes”: light and graceful, with hidden strength and the hill’s signature mint and eucalyptus. Mosconi, in Monforte d’Alba, sits on heavy, iron-rich clay and is the titan, broad and muscular. Via Nuova, the “new road,” blends six crus across Barolo, Monforte and Serralunga into the most complete wine of the range.

The Langhe Nebbiolo, from prime parcels in La Morra, is a serious wine to drink while the Barolos age, and the Barolo Chinato, aromatized with herbs, spices and cinchona bark, keeps the traditional depth that makes it one of the great digestifs. In the hot 2022 vintage her wines stayed luminous and restrained — a triumph of finesse over heat.