LE PIANE BOCA, 2015 HARVEST REPORT
From our vineyards:
After the very difficult 2014 vintage with half production and no Boca and Piane and may be even no Mimmo produced, the 2015 is the real opposite. Some rain in May and June with very good flowering period followed by a terrific summer – very high temperatures and no rain kept the grapes healthy and fast ripening; in middle of August the vineyards started to be stressed by the heat but some rain put everything in good shape. At the moment we have lower temperatures and even if we reached high sugar degrees (13% Alc. potential) we will wait till end of September with the harvest to reach perfect, physiological ripeness. This year also the difficult grape Vespolina which we lost completely last year is in perfect shape and the Croatina looks outstanding. Hope that the weather helps us till the end we look forward to an outstanding vintage.
We’ve finished fixing everything to avoid erosion this year for our (for some time) last vineyard. The work was done with expensive walls towards the street and water-collecting channels from stone and wood. Mostly Vespolina and Nebbiolo but also some Croatina and the rare Malvasia di Boca (aromatic white grape) form this terraced vineyard. For the first time, we could use vines from a selection of old vineyards of Boca and start long term research of clones grown since centuries in Boca. With this plantation we have now reached a total size of 9 hectares (22.25 acres) of vineyards.
New Wines Bottled:
BOCA 2011: We have just bottled Boca 2011 after 4 years aging in big wooden barrels and giving it some months in the bottle to show it for the first time at Vinitaly 2016. From a hot year with an exceptionally hot August, the ripening of the grapes was early with healthy grapes and high sugar content. In the beginning the wine was abundantly rich and needed a lot of time to put it’s elegance in evidence and smooth down the present tannins. Now it’s one of our best examples of Boca with rich and ripe aromas from berries, tobacco, dark notes of forest, very balsamic and rich but not lacking great elegance and fine character. It is the first time we’ve bottled the Boca without filtering. We bottled 10’000 0.75l bottles, 500 Magnums and some 3 litres.
PIANE Vino Rosso 2012: With 2009 and even more with 2011 we found the right style for this wine, made from very ripe grapes from the oldest vineyards of Maggiorina. 90% is Croatina grapes with some Vespolina and others. The 2012 version follows in this style being even more elegant and fine than 2011, according a year of great harmony. Dark, aromatic of cherries, forest ground, autumnal notes and tobacco combines with a rich body and good structure with long velvety finish. A wine, which always goes very well with game and red meat and also stuffed meat of any kind. We will first finish the Piane 2011 (getting out of stock soon) and then switch to Piane 2012. We bottled only 4200 0.75l bottles and as the vintage 2013 and 2014 we could not produce Piane it will be soon sold out too.
MAGGIORINA Vino Rosso 2014: According to the cold vintage of 2014, the Maggiorina turns back to the lighter style like 2010. It’s a very charming wine with nice berry-perfumes and fresh and fruity character, mineral and very drinkable. We produced 20’000 bottles.
PLINIUS I BOCA DOC 2007: At Vinitaly 2015 we presented for the first time our special edition Plinius I, produced from a special barrel which in 2007, gave a totally different wine. Powerful, young but still with the elegance of Boca, it shows a new side of our region. The wine was so exuberant that it needed 5 years barrel aging and 2 years bottle aging to show now the first ripeness, but we are sure that this wine can last up to 20 years easily. As we have produced only 1998 0.75l bottles and 600 Magnums we reserve this wine for our best customers worldwide and decided not to give it to the guides to avoid demand of this wine which then we can’t fulfill.
Vino Bianco: Since some years we sometimes produced little quantities of “Passito” sweet wine from Erbaluce grapes we picked from our old Maggiorina fields. Erbaluce gives amazing results in this version and finally we could fill some official bottles from 2011 vintage not only for friends though with a total production of 300 0.375l bottles we will not go very far. A wine with heavy sugar content balanced by a good acidity full of aromatics from figs, honey and nuts. Best with blue cheese or foie gras of course. The name was chosen as P (greek) or in Italian “Pi Greco”, (as we can’t use – for legal reasons – Passito or Erbaluce) which combines the P for Passito and Greco as the dialect name used for Erbaluce in Boca.