Variety: Nebbiolo

It would not be doing Chiara Boschis justice to say she is simply a great winemaker; she is a human of undeniable confidence, fortitude, and charm. This comes through in her wines as well. She concentrates primarily on the regional Nebbiolo grape while contrasting her family’s centuries of traditional male-dominated winemaking. Chiara takes a rebellious path, employing green harvesting, shorter fermentations, and the use of small French oak casks. The amount of new oak used on her cru Nebbiolos has decreased from 80% to 50%. Even her first wine, 1990 Barolo Riserva Cannubi was an incredible success. The winery became certified organic in 2014. Taking this a step further, she was able to convince 80% of the winemakers in the neighboring Cannubi to switch to organic as well!

Prior to 2009, Via Nuova was the common name of the vineyard behind Chiara’s cellar in Barolo. Under new wine law, the vineyard became known as Terlo. At this time, Chiara decided to stop producing Via Nuova as a single vineyard expression, and instead make it a classic Barolo blend from all of her plots; thus reiterating the name “Via Nuova” as the new way. The blending of several vineyard sites was common with Barolo producers until the 1960s, when the single vineyard bottlings took off. Ironically, “Via Nuova” represents the new way with a nod to old-time tradition.