Azienda Vitivinicola Balbiano

The story

The First Official Bottles

In the spring of 2008, Balbiano harvested ten quintals of Freisa from the terraced vineyard at Villa della Regina, the baroque royal palace on the Superga hillside above Turin. The grapes did not go into bottles. They went into test fermentations. The question was whether a vineyard replanted five years earlier inside a city, on a south-east-facing palace slope, could produce a wine worth the Freisa di Chieri DOC. When the fermentation results came back sound, the estate committed: the 2009 harvest of forty quintals became the first official vintage. Two years later, the Freisa di Chieri DOC designation was formally extended to cover Villa della Regina, making it the only urban vineyard in Italy to produce a DOC-certified wine and one of three in Europe, alongside Clos Montmartre in Paris and the Schönbrunn Castle vineyard in Vienna. The ten quintals that went into the test fermentation in 2008 are what made the official bottles in 2009 possible.

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Azienda Vitivinicola Balbiano

At A Glance

The Producer

Balbiano farms Freisa and nothing else. The estate sits in Andezeno, a village in the Collina Torinese hills south-east of Turin, and has been doing exactly this since Melchiorre Balbiano founded it on 14 September 1941. His son Francesco carried it forward; his grandson Luca now leads it. Three generations, one grape, eighty-plus years.

That singularity is also a declaration. Freisa is a native Piedmontese red variety that most of the regional wine world has quietly filed behind Nebbiolo and Barbera. Balbiano has spent its entire existence making the opposite argument: that Freisa, farmed well and vinified across its full range of styles, is worth a producer's complete attention. Luca Balbiano served as president of the Consorzio Tutela e Valorizzazione delle DOC Freisa di Chieri e Collina Torinese, and in 2019 founded the Urban Vineyards Association to protect the heritage value of city-embedded vineyards across Europe. The advocacy and the winemaking are part of the same project.

The estate holds roughly seven hectares in the Collina Torinese DOC. It also manages a separate plot of terraced vines inside the baroque grounds of Villa della Regina in Turin, producing under the Freisa di Chieri DOC. That urban vineyard is the only one in Italy to hold DOC certification, and one of three in Europe alongside Clos Montmartre in Paris and the Schönbrunn Castle vineyard in Vienna.

Place

Andezeno sits in the Collina Torinese, a range of low hills rising south-east of Turin along the Po plain. The denomination covers a compact wine zone close to the city, cooler and more elevated than the plain below, with enough altitude to keep natural acidity in the fruit. The Collina Torinese DOC label appears on Balbiano's main estate wines.

The Freisa di Chieri DOC draws a tighter circle around the town of Chieri and the surrounding slopes, specifically designating wines made from Freisa grown in this sub-zone. Villa della Regina, the baroque royal palace on the hill of Superga at Turin's eastern edge, falls inside this circle. Freisa di Chieri DOC appears on the urban vineyard wine and on the estate's frizzante.

The two appellations on Balbiano's bottles are therefore a map of where the grapes grow: Collina Torinese for the main estate in Andezeno, Freisa di Chieri for the vines closest to Turin.

Soil And Site

The Collina Torinese hills are formed primarily from Miocene marine sediments, with clay-rich soils over calcareous subsoils typical of Piedmontese hillside vineyards. Elevation above the plain moderates summer heat and sustains the acid line that keeps Freisa fresh across all its styles. Villa della Regina's terraced slope faces south-east on the Superga hillside, with well-drained soils and direct sun exposure. The site was replanted in 2003 before the first harvest in 2008.

Story

Melchiorre Balbiano spent his earlier working years managing farms and brokering grape sales in the Turin hills. On 14 September 1941, he made the decision to stop selling other people's fruit and start making his own wine. He chose Freisa, the grape that grew on those hills, and Andezeno, where he already knew the land.

The estate remained a local address for decades, building its reputation within the Collina Torinese and Freisa di Chieri denominations as both took shape around it. Luca Balbiano opened a museum at the estate in 1990, adding a cultural dimension to the production operation. His involvement in the regional consorzio and later the founding of the Urban Vineyards Association placed Balbiano in a position beyond its own bottle count: the producer became an advocate for the whole appellation and for the European tradition of urban viticulture.

The Villa della Regina project began in 2003 with the replanting of the terraced vineyard on the Superga hillside inside Turin. Five years of growing followed before the first experimental harvest in 2008. When the test fermentations from those ten quintals showed the site could produce wine worth the DOC, the estate committed to the 2009 harvest as the first official vintage. The DOC designation for Villa della Regina followed in 2011.

In 2019, Luca Balbiano co-founded the Urban Vineyards Association, drawing together the three European urban DOC vineyards into a formal advocacy body. The Villa della Regina project had moved from an experiment in one city into a recognised category in European wine culture.

Vineyards And Cellar

Balbiano works roughly seven hectares in the Collina Torinese, with the additional urban plot at Villa della Regina. All DOC wines are Freisa.

For the Freisa di Chieri Frizzante, the winery uses tank refermentation: the base wine undergoes a second fermentation in sealed stainless-steel vessels, which builds carbon dioxide and dissolves it into the wine without any of the oxidative contact or secondary compounds that come from extended bottle ageing. The bubbles are soft rather than persistent, and the tannin from the Freisa grape stays gentle.

For Cherium Brut, Balbiano applies the Classic Method: secondary fermentation takes place in each individual bottle, building a finer, more integrated perlage and adding the complexity that comes from extended contact with the lees inside the bottle. The process is longer, more labour-intensive, and produces a structurally firmer wine.

Still Freisa wines made for ageing are also part of the range, though specific cuvée names and ageing periods extend beyond what the sourced material confirms in full.

Wines

Freisa is the only grape in the Balbiano range. Its natural character, firm acidity, moderate tannin, and aromas of red fruit, violet, and a faint herbal note, runs through every bottle. The cellar choices determine the style.

Freisa di Chieri Frizzante is the estate's most approachable wine. One hundred percent Freisa, refermented in stainless-steel tanks, it carries red fruit on the nose, a dry palate, light effervescence, and soft tannins. There is no oak contact. The wine is made to be opened young.

Cherium Brut Metodo Classico is a white sparkling wine made by bottle fermentation. It is dry, light, and fresh, with fine continuous bubbles, a clean acid line, and enough body to take on substantial food. The producer places it alongside fish, shellfish, carpaccio, tartare, and sushi, pairings that depend on the wine's dryness and the texture that bottle fermentation adds.

Villa della Regina Freisa di Chieri is the urban vineyard bottling, produced from the terraced plot inside the baroque palace grounds in Turin. It holds DOC designation since 2011 and represents the third distinct expression of Freisa in the range: neither the light effervescence of the frizzante nor the Classic Method sparkling, but a still wine from a specific urban site with its own soil and microclimate.

Still Freisa wines suitable for longer ageing round out the range, showing the variety's capacity to develop in bottle when the growing and cellar choices support it.

In The Glass

Freisa di Chieri Frizzante opens with a clear red-fruit lift, cherry and a touch of raspberry, and the fine herbal edge that Freisa typically carries. In the mouth the effervescence is light rather than aggressive, dissolving quickly and leaving the palate dry. Tannin is soft but present, giving the wine enough grip to stand beside food without weight.

Cherium Brut reads differently. The aromas are quieter, drawn tighter by the Classic Method's lees contact, with a stony mineral note beneath the fruit. On the palate the bubbles are finer and more persistent, the texture is creamier, and the finish is longer and drier. The acid line is clean and direct. It is the more complex bottle, and the firmer one.

The Villa della Regina wine, as a still Freisa from an urban south-east-facing slope, brings the grape's acidity and red-fruit character without sparkling intervention, and the site's particular drainage and sun exposure give it a character distinct from the Andezeno estate wines.

Across all three formats, Freisa's acidity keeps the wines from heaviness regardless of the winemaking path chosen.

A Bottle To Understand It

Start with the Freisa di Chieri Frizzante. It is 100% Freisa refermented in stainless steel, dry, with light effervescence and soft tannins. The wine asks nothing except a cold glass and something on the table: cured meats, local cheeses, or a simple pasta. Its directness is the point. Freisa's red-fruit character and firm acidity come through without any winemaking layer added by oak, lees ageing, or extended bottle time. This is the grape unmediated, made in a style the Turin hills have favoured for generations. Once the frizzante is clear in the glass, the move to Cherium Brut's Classic Method complexity or the still Villa della Regina wine makes sense by contrast.

Anecdote

In the spring of 2008, Balbiano harvested ten quintals of Freisa from the terraced vineyard at Villa della Regina, the baroque royal palace on the Superga hillside above Turin. The grapes did not go into bottles. They went into test fermentations. The question was whether a vineyard replanted five years earlier inside a city, on a south-east-facing palace slope, could produce a wine worth the Freisa di Chieri DOC. When the fermentation results came back sound, the estate committed: the 2009 harvest of forty quintals became the first official vintage. Two years after that, the Freisa di Chieri DOC designation was formally extended to cover Villa della Regina, making it the only urban vineyard in Italy to produce a DOC-certified wine and one of three such vineyards in Europe, alongside Clos Montmartre in Paris and the Schönbrunn Castle vineyard in Vienna. The ten quintals that went into the test fermentation in 2008 are what made the official bottles in 2009 possible.

Final Word

Balbiano is a clear address for anyone wanting to understand Freisa. Eighty years on one grape, across a range that spans tank-refermented frizzante, Classic Method sparkling, and still wines for ageing, from vines in the Collina Torinese hills and from a baroque urban slope inside Turin itself. The Villa della Regina project turned a heritage site into a working DOC vineyard. The Freisa di Chieri Frizzante is the place to begin.

Sources

• https://www.balbiano.com/en
• https://www.balbiano.com/en/projects/the-queen-vineyard
• https://www.torinodoc.com/en/balbiano-melchiorre-azienda-vitivinicola-s-n-c/
• https://www.foodmakers.it/azienda-vitivinicola-balbiano-una-storia-da-tre-generazioni/
• https://www.lavinium.it/dialogando-con-luca-balbiano-alla-scoperta-del-freisa/
• https://www.balbiano.com/en/cellars/our-wines/freisa-chieri-doc-frizzante
• https://www.balbiano.com/en/cellars/our-wines/spumante-brut-metodo-classico-cherium
• https://www.balbiano.com/en/about-us/freisa-wine