For the tasting today Wine-Searcher’s Wine Director – David Allen MW – tastes a Barbera d’Alba that is grown and vinified alongside some fabulous Barolos. He finds the wine offering some attractive drinking and nicely approachable.
E. Pira & Figli (Chiara Boschis) is a small wine estate in the Italian subregion of Barolo. It produces a range of single-vineyard Nebbiolo wines from several of the Barolo crus, as well as a Barbera d’Alba and a Dolcetto d’Alba.
The original estate consisted of just 2.5 hectares (6 acres) of vineyards – mostly in the Cannubi and Cannnubi San Lorenzo cru vineyards. These two vineyards supply fruit for the estate’s Barolo Cannubi wine and its Barbera d’Alba. The remaining half-hectare is in Via Nuova (on the Terlo hill), providing grapes for another single-vineyard Barolo.
In 2009, the estate acquired a 4 ha (10 acre) property at Conterni in Monforte d’Alba. This vineyard is planted with younger vines that are eventually destined for Barolo, but for now are vinified as Langhe Nebbiolo. It also provides fruit for the Dolcetto d’Alba.
The E. Pira & Figli winery is located on a square in the town of Barolo. Grapes are fermented in temperature-regulated stainless steel tanks with automated punch-downs. Barolos spend two years barrel-aging in new French barriques, followed by a year in bottle before release whilst the Barbera spends 18 months in second-use oak, and the Dolcetto matures in third-use wood for eight months.
The name of the current owner-winemaker, Chiara Boschis, features prominently on the label of E. Pira & Figli’s wine labels. This is to reduce any chance of confusion with the other Barolo producers Pira and Pira Luigi.
Find out more about this wine, its pricing and where to buy it follow the link below to the Wine-Searcher website:
https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/e+pira+figli+chiara+boschis+superior+barbera+d+alba+piemonte+italy/2021
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hello there today I’m taking a look at a Barbara de Alba Superior and this particular wine is a 2021 vintage wine and it’s froma and fi sometimes also referred to by the wine maker Chiara bosis this is a small family-owned primarily aolo producer initially the domain was about 2 and 1/2 hectares with a number of plots that were made of single Vineyard baros so they have PL in kenui they have a plot in San Lorenzo they also have a plot in Via noiva and if I’m reading the information I’ve got correctly the fruit for the Barbara dalba Superior they make actually comes from those plots in kenui and San Lorenzo so presumably from those bits of land with what are called helvian soils Swiss soils that are less suited for nebiolo so the domain banded quite a bit in the early part of this Century in 2009 for instance they bought four hectares of vines in mon Forte dalba where they’ve been growing nebiolo and doletto with the idea that the nebiolo will eventually go into a Baro but that’s being made and sold as as a langolo now Chiara bosis the wine maker took over the estate from her parents Francisco and Ida in 2010 although she’d been working alongside them for a couple of decades prior to that I believe also assisting her is her brother Georgio and they’re the ninth generation of their family to be making wine in barola and I don’t don’t know they’re necessarily the ninth generation involved in this domain as it currently exists but they have a long history of Point Mak cha has been one of the early female wine makers in bero and for a long time was about the only female wine maker I believe moving on next step in the the Estates development was in 2014 when they gained their Organic certification and all their wines have been certified as such subsequently their tiny sellers sit on the Town Square in bolo the fruit for these wines is entirely handpicked it’s crushed and it goes into stain of Steel fermenting tanks for a fair period of mation for that reason temperature is controlled sometimes they have to be sometimes the m has to be warmed up and other times it has to be cooled just to sort of slow down the fermentation but there are punch downs and pump overs going on almost daily throughout fermentation then the wine is racked it’s lightly pressed then it undergoes malolactic conversion in the tank there’s no new Oak for this and the wine ages there for 12 months once it’s been bottled after that year it then spends a further at least 2 to 3 months in bottle in their sellers prior to release I think one of the things to note is that chiara’s name appears quite prominently on the label and that is because there are some other states using the pi family name to Market their wine so I think that’s done to distinguish their wines from those of those other Estates so let’s have a look at the wine shall we so barara quite classically the color has a slightly purple note it’s quite dark it’s not particularly deep I would say there’s a medium depth there as I’m swirling it there actually appears to be a sort of a slight Touch of CO2 in there although it’s dissipating very quickly you know it’s quite obvious that there is that sort of purple Hue to the the wine so let’s see what make of the Aromas shall we the Aromas are quite developed there’s a sort of a forest floor note there’s there’s quite a juicy almost purple fruit I I think a boen breeze Juicy Fruit malb there’s a spicy hint almost sort of raspberri Logan B sort of notes Logan B actually quite a good descriptor there for the aroma it’s not really a leafiness but there is something Savory something slightly Woody slightly slightly graphite like on the on the the top of the Aromas there so let’s see what it tastes like shall we the palette has a very fine structure it’s really quite drying there’s quite a mouthwatering interaction between fresh acidity drying bitter gripping tannins very fine tannins creating a really mouthwatering sensation in the front of the mouth really accentuating the juiciness of the fruit it really is that sort of Juicy mbes raspberries with a sort of a vivid fresh red red purple fruit in the front of the mouth there there there are as I say the bitter notes some of that’s textural but there’s also a sort of a a slightly spicy note to the flavor it’s not particularly Cedar Oak there we know there’s no new oak on this I would think it’s more derived from the Pips of the skin there’s a a licoricey note as well it’s there’s not quite the sort of the concentrated core of of licorice that you’d get with a more powerful full bodied wine this is more medium bodied it’s got good fresh acidity and this fine structure but there is that sort of concentrated dark fruit and and I suppose the combination of bitterness just at the end there that’s providing sort of licoricey ance sort of notes to the finish at the Finish you’ve got this freshness continuing and that’s allowing that sort of juicy red fruit to show through again it’s s of red cherries red plums I suppose towards the end there a little perhaps it’s mellowed a little it’s not quite got the juiciness that they was on the on the initial attack flavors are actually lasting quite well the structure with its its fine notes was seen much more on the mid pallet it’s not quite as firm to the finish and that’s allowing the fruit to just open up a little there I’m sure that given a bit more time that fruit will open up more at the at the Finish but for the moment it’s EX accessible and I think the combination of very fine Dusty gripping tannins and really quite nice acidity will make this quite a good partner for uh a wide variety of of foods you know if you’ve got sauces you need to cut through if youve got fatty notes in your dish I think this will work really nicely with those I don’t think it’s a wine that needs long aging it would probably benefit for a couple of years in the seller you know continue to hold and be very drinkable you know 5 six seven 8 years but there’s no necessity to AG it for I think there’s a good argument for drinking this while it’s still young fresh and vibrant in terms of its score I had a look we don’t actually have a specific score for this vintage however the aggregated score for the wine overall is comprised of quite a large number of scores and that is 89 out of 100 and I think given the wines Aging in there’s a certain lack of complexity and I don’t think the wine coin has the depth to readily exceed a score much more than about 90 so I do think that that’s a score it’s about at the right place I think I’d been slightly more generous I think I’d if I was scoring this wine now I’d probably score it at 90 but I think that’s completely in in line with those scores so thank you very much for joining us I do hope you’ve enjoyed the tasting if you have we’d love it if you pressed the like button that’d be fantastic if you want to watch more of these tastings it would be great if you’d sign up and subscribe to our Channel it would be fantastic to have your support I will leave a link in the notes below so that you can find out where this was is sold its pricing and all the other information that we have on the wine Searcher website about the Wine’s background it’s price history the critics scores and the like if you have any comments you want to leave please pop those in the comments box below be interested to hear what you think about the wine what your experience with Barbara is for instance what you think of the wine tastings we’re doing or any other feedback you have like that for us it would be fantastic to thanks again for joining us do please see if you can take some time and come and join us for another tasting in the very near future would you thanks again bye for now