The Boggione family story is one not uncommon in the EU—Claudio was selling grapes from his incredibly valuable Barolo Brunate parcel to Michelle Chiarlo (a negociant) until the 2010 vintage, when he decided to bottle under his own name. Brunate is among the most famous vineyards in all of Italy, and the family only makes about 6,000 bottles per year from it.

They have a parcel of old-vines in the south corner of Brunate - straddling the commune lines of Barolo and La Morra. Claudio farms according to “The Green Experience”, free of pesticides and herbicides. He follows a gentle, traditional cellar regimen consistent with someone who’s core competency is farming - long maceration and fermentation with indigenous yeast is followed by aging in old Slavonian oak and bottling without fining or filtration. The wine is raised close to it’s terroir, in a spartan cellar at the base of Brunate. Three of four Slavonian oak tonneaux and a handful of stainless steel tanks are all you will find there.

Claudio prefers fermentation in stainless steel because he believes it reduces the number of outside variables during an already riskier than average spontaneous fermentation.

If someone asked us for an archetypal Barolo to better understand the appellation and Nebbiolo, this is the wine we would reach for. In terms of traditional Barolo, this wine tends to the detailed, fine grained side as opposed to the more brooding “water color” effect of more oxidative styles. A wine that is rarely sensual, yet isn’t too angular either, where the land can really be felt. Medium bodied with penetrating tannins in most vintages.

The overall feel of how Claudio works is substance over image, with no flash. He is softspoken and seems to have little agenda other than an honest expression of Brunate. The whole thing seems more common to an old-timers cellar in Cornas, or something like that. A place with great terroir but more untouched by time than neighboring appellations. When we taste, he often says, “I think this is good wine”, as if he’s a little self-conscious about his low key look amid the investment that’s flowed into the region.

His mentality is something that suits us just fine.