From the atlas
Azienda Agricola Giuseppe Bocchino
At A Glance
Producer: Azienda Agricola Giuseppe Bocchino Country: Italy Region: Piemonte Location: Canelli, Asti province Grapes: Moscato Bianco, Barbera, Nebbiolo, Cortese Key Appellations: Moscato d'Asti DOCG Canelli, Barbera d'Asti Superiore, Nizza DOCG, Nebbiolo d'Alba, Cortese dell'Alto Monferrato DOC Estate Size: Approximately 12 hectares First Bottle: Sorì dei Fiori Moscato d'Asti DOCG Canelli
The Producer
Azienda Agricola Giuseppe Bocchino is a family estate in Canelli, a hill town in the southern Asti province of Piemonte, within walking distance of the Moscato d'Asti vineyards that anchor the range. The family has been making wine since the mid-nineteenth century. The modern estate took its settled form in the 1930s under Aurelio and Luigia Bocchino, and the property has passed through the family ever since, farming around 12 hectares across Canelli, Moasca, and Corneliano d'Alba.
The range is built around Moscato and Barbera, the two grapes that give this part of southern Piemonte its character, with Nebbiolo from Corneliano d'Alba and a dry Cortese completing the portfolio. The estate's approach to growing is direct: no herbicides, minimal sulfite additions, and a production principle the family states plainly: from bad grapes you can make only bad wine, from good grapes you can make both good wine and bad wine. The logic runs in one direction, always back to the vineyard.
Place
Canelli sits in the southern Asti province where the Belbo river valley opens into a landscape of rounded hills covered in Moscato Bianco. The town holds a particular position in the Moscato d'Asti DOCG: Canelli is one of only three geographic sub-zones, alongside Santo Stefano Belbo and Strevi, that can add the name Canelli to the DOCG label. That distinction on the label signals hillside Moscato grown in the designated Canelli area, a zone with a reputation for aromatic depth and enough natural acidity to carry the wine's sweetness without making it heavy.
The estate also holds land in Moasca, a commune east of Canelli, and in Corneliano d'Alba, a village north of Asti in the Roero district bordering the Tanaro river. Corneliano sits outside the Moscato belt and supplies the estate's Nebbiolo, grown in conditions closer to the Langhe than to the sweet-wine heartland of southern Asti.
Soil And Site
The vineyards spread across two soil types. The Canelli parcels sit on calcareous marl and calcareous clay, the limestone-heavy soils that run through much of the Moscato d'Asti zone and contribute to the grape's characteristic aromatic lift and firm acid line. The broader 12 hectares include sloped land on loam and limestone, giving the estate a range of drainage conditions and vine stress levels across its three territories.
Sorì, the Piemontese word for a south-facing slope, describes the orientation of the Sorì dei Fiori vineyard. South-facing exposure in this latitude means maximum sunlight hours, which in Moscato Bianco translates directly to ripeness and aromatic intensity.
Story
The family's wine history begins with Felice Bocchino, who was already exporting wine to America in small wooden barrels by sea in the mid-nineteenth century, a period when most Piemontese producers sold locally or through brokers to regional intermediaries. That early international orientation set a pattern. The modern estate was established in the 1930s by Aurelio and Luigia Bocchino, who built the foundation that their descendants farm today.
The range carries the family's names through the labels. L'Aurelio, the estate's Nebbiolo d'Alba, is named for grandfather Aurelio. Blincin, the entry Barbera, is named for an ancestor known for cheerfulness who served as the Canelli Carnival mascot, the kind of local history that turns a grape into a character. These are not marketing decisions; they are a family keeping count of who came before.
The clearest statement of how the estate works today is the Re d'Autunno rule: in any autumn where the weather is not mild and well-ventilated enough to let the oldest Moscato vines in Sant'Antonio di Canelli dry on the vine, the wine is not made. No Re d'Autunno that year. The commitment is concrete and annual, and the wine's existence in any given vintage is the weather's answer to a standing question the family asks every harvest.
Vineyards And Cellar
The estate farms without herbicides and uses minimal sulfite additions throughout production. Herbicide-free farming on sloped calcareous clay requires more mechanical and manual work to manage soil competition, and the discipline flows from the family's stated belief that wine quality is determined in the vineyard before it can be determined anywhere else.
For Re d'Autunno, the cellar method is the vineyard method: the oldest Moscato vines in Sant'Antonio di Canelli must dry on the vine before harvest. Passito production of this kind concentrates sugars and aromatic compounds progressively through dehydration, producing a different sensory register from artificially dried or botrytis-affected grapes. When conditions are right, the grapes dry slowly over weeks of mild autumn air. When rain or stagnant conditions arrive, the family passes on the vintage entirely rather than picking at the wrong moment.
Barbera is vinified at two levels. Blincin is made to express Barbera's immediate dark-cherry fruit without extended ageing. Barbariae, the Superiore, spends additional time in cellar, which rounds the grape's naturally high acidity and adds mid-palate weight. DueLù, the Nizza DOCG, requires lower yields and longer ageing by appellation law, placing it above both in the range hierarchy.
Wines
The range divides clearly into two groups: Moscato-based whites and a Barbera-led red tier.
Sorì dei Fiori Moscato d'Asti DOCG Canelli is the estate's central white, made from Moscato Bianco on south-facing Canelli slopes. It is low in alcohol, lightly sparkling in the frizzante style, floral and sweet, with high natural acidity that keeps the sweetness from settling heavily on the palate. Peach blossom, apricot, and orange blossom are the aromas; the mousse is gentle; the finish is clean and bright.
Blincin Barbera d'Asti is the estate's entry red, made to drink with fruit-forward immediacy. Barbera gives dark cherry, high natural acidity, and relatively light tannin; this bottling leans into that freshness rather than attempting to build weight through ageing.
Barbariae Barbera d'Asti Superiore extends the Barbera arc. Superiore ageing rounds the grape's edges and adds mid-palate density, keeping the grape's characteristic acid lift.
DueLù Nizza DOCG sits at the top of the Barbera range. Nizza is a sub-zone of Barbera d'Asti with stricter yield limits and longer minimum ageing, producing Barbera with greater concentration and depth. DueLù is the estate's most age-worthy red.
Cadicarassa Cortese dell'Alto Monferrato DOC is the estate's dry white from Cortese grown in the Alto Monferrato zone. Cortese gives citrus and almond at moderate weight, making Cadicarassa a dry counterpoint to the Moscato-led whites.
In The Glass
The Sorì dei Fiori rises from the glass with Moscato's unmistakable fragrance: white peach, apricot skin, orange blossom, and a hint of fresh hay. In the mouth the mousse is soft, the sweetness arrives quickly, and then the acidity from the Canelli calcareous soils pulls the wine across the palate and clears it on the finish. It is not a heavy wine. The alcohol is low, the body is light, and the grape's native aromatic intensity does the work.
The Barbariae Barbera d'Asti Superiore moves in a different direction entirely. Dark cherry and plum on the nose, with the faint iron-mineral quality Barbera often shows from calcareous clay soils. In the mouth the acidity is high and the tannin is present but not hard; the Superiore ageing has added density to the mid-palate without masking the grape's fundamental freshness. The finish is long and fruit-driven.
DueLù Nizza shows what the Nizza appellation demands: more concentration, darker fruit, and a sturdier frame. Blackberry, dried cherry, a hint of oak spice from extended ageing, and firm tannin that asks for food or time in bottle.
Re d'Autunno, when it appears, is viscous and rich, with dried apricot, orange peel, honey, and the floral lift Moscato never entirely loses even under concentration. It finishes long, sweet, and with enough acidity to prevent heaviness.
A Bottle To Understand It
Start with the Sorì dei Fiori Moscato d'Asti DOCG Canelli. It is low in alcohol, gently sparkling, floral, and sweet, made from Moscato Bianco on south-facing slopes in Canelli, one of three DOCG-recognised sub-zones in the Moscato d'Asti appellation. The grape grows on calcareous soils that give it bright natural acidity, and that acidity is what makes the wine work: the sweetness is real but it never becomes dense or cloying. White peach and orange blossom come first; a soft mousse carries the wine across the palate; the finish is clean and short. It is a wine made for drinking at the table rather than cellaring, and it shows exactly what the Canelli address means: aromatic intensity, genuine sweetness, and enough freshness to keep it honest. Chill it and serve it alongside something simple, or alone.
Anecdote
In the mid-nineteenth century, Felice Bocchino was loading barrels of Piemontese wine onto ships bound for America. The barrels were small and wooden, and the journey was by sea. Most producers in the region at the time were selling to local brokers or to the big négociant houses that dominated the export trade. Felice went directly, shipping from Canelli to a market on the other side of the Atlantic before refrigerated containers, before reliable transatlantic travel, before most Italian wine had found a reliable route beyond the Alps. The wine survived the crossing or it didn't; there was no way to know until it arrived.
Final Word
Azienda Agricola Giuseppe Bocchino is a family estate that has been making wine in Canelli since before Piemonte was a unified administrative region. The Moscato d'Asti DOCG Canelli is the entry point and the clearest statement of the address. The Re d'Autunno is the rarest bottle in the range and the most precise expression of the family's farming logic: a wine that exists only when the season allows it, and doesn't when it doesn't. For a Piemontese sweet wine from a producer with roots in the 19th century, the range is more varied and more grounded than the category usually suggests.
Sources
- https://vinibocchino.it/en/beppe-bocchino-winery/
- https://www.williamscorner.com/growers/giuseppe-bocchino/
- https://guidiwines.com/collections/giuseppe-bocchino
- https://vinibocchino.it/en/wines/re-dautunno-wine-from-raisined-grapes/
- https://guidaallecantine.com/en/monferrato/beppe-bocchino