From the atlas
E. Pira & Figli - Chiara Boschis
At A Glance
Producer: E. Pira & Figli - Chiara Boschis Village: Barolo, Piemonte, Italy Grape: Nebbiolo (Barolo), Dolcetto Hectares: approximately 11, across Barolo, Monforte d'Alba and Serralunga d'Alba Farming: certified organic from the 2014 harvest Bottles: Barolo Via Nuova, Barolo Cannubi, Barolo Mosconi, Dolcetto First bottle: Barolo Via Nuova
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The Producer
Chiara Boschis runs the estate from Via Vittorio Veneto 1, at the centre of the village of Barolo. She took over with her parents Franco and Ida in 1980, when Barolo's cellars were almost entirely male, and by the end of the 1980s had made herself one of the first women producing Barolo in the Langhe. That is a fact the estate states plainly, without ceremony. The wine was the argument.
The Pira family appears in local parish records from the seventeenth century and became winemakers at the turn of the twentieth. The name E. Pira & Figli carries that long history, but the estate as it operates today is Chiara Boschis's creation: the farming philosophy, the cellar discipline, the range architecture. Her brother Giorgio joined the ownership in 2010. All fruit comes from vineyards the estate cultivates, almost all of them owned outright.
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Place
The estate's eleven hectares run across three communes, each at a different elevation and with a different tannin profile. The Cannubi hill in the village of Barolo lies at lower elevation, with a southerly aspect that opens the wine early. In Monforte d'Alba, the Mosconi parcel climbs between 340 and 420 metres above sea level; the higher position draws out ripening and pushes the tannin harder. In Serralunga d'Alba, Gabutti sits at 260 metres and Baudana rises again to 400.
Barolo as an appellation covers eleven communes in the Langhe hills south of Alba, with Nebbiolo as its only permitted grape. The commune of Barolo itself sits at the western end of the zone; Serralunga d'Alba anchors the eastern edge. Working across all three gives the estate a range of aromatic and structural materials to draw from, and it chooses to keep them separate for Cannubi and Mosconi while assembling them together for Via Nuova.
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Soil And Site
The Cannubi hill in the village of Barolo sits on the pale Helvetian soils that characterise the western communes: compact Tortonian calcareous marls mixed with sand, which warm quickly and release their tannin early. Monforte's Mosconi rises on heavier, more compact soils at altitude, slowing ripening and producing harder, more mineral tannin. Serralunga's parcels sit on the densest Helvetian limestone in the appellation.
The elevation spread across the estate, from 260 metres at Gabutti to 420 metres at the top of the Monforte holdings, means harvest timing and phenolic maturity vary by parcel. The estate harvests manually at full phenolic ripeness, reading each site separately.
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Story
In 1980, the Pira family faced the decision many small Langhe estates faced at the time: find someone to continue the work or let the name fade. Chiara Boschis, with her parents, chose continuity. What followed was not simply a preservation of what existed but a gradual remaking. Through the 1980s, as Barolo divided between traditionalists and modernisers, Boschis was building a position as a winemaker rather than a custodian.
The farming shift took decades to formalise. Manual vine work and yield reduction through green harvest had been part of the operation long before certification. Surplus bunches are removed two or three times after fruit set, a labour-intensive decision that limits the harvest but concentrates what remains. The organic certification, confirmed from the 2014 harvest, was the paperwork that caught up with the practice.
Giorgio Boschis joined the ownership in 2010, and the estate has remained a family operation with a clear line of authority. What Chiara built through the 1980s and 1990s, at a time when women were nearly absent from Barolo production, the estate continues to build on today.
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Vineyards And Cellar
All work in the vineyard is manual and follows organic cultivation standards. Yield control begins before harvest: bunches in excess of what each vine can ripen properly are removed two or three times after fruit set. Harvest itself is manual, with selection in the vineyard at full phenolic ripeness.
In the cellar, red-wine fermentation takes place in automatic fermenters with a floating cap at a controlled temperature of approximately 28°C. The floating-cap method keeps the grape skins in contact with the fermenting juice without the aggressive extraction of a punched-down or pumped-over cap, producing tannin that is firm but not torn. All three Barolos then mature for approximately two years in a combination of lightly toasted 225-litre French-oak barriques and larger 2,000- to 2,500-litre oak casks. The barriques add a degree of oak texture; the large casks moderate it. Dolcetto receives a light filtration; all three Barolos go to bottle unfined and unfiltered.
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Wines
The estate makes three Barolos from Nebbiolo and one Dolcetto, each with a distinct brief.
Barolo Via Nuova is assembled from six parcels: two each in the communes of Barolo, Monforte d'Alba and Serralunga d'Alba. Drawing from every part of the estate, it delivers a cross-section of what the eleven hectares produce. Via Nuova is the broadest wine in the range, built to show how commune character combines rather than how individual sites perform in isolation. The 2018 shows lifted aromatics, firm mineral tannin and a structured mid-palate; the 2015 opened slowly, filling out considerably with air.
Barolo Cannubi comes from the Cannubi hill in the village of Barolo, one of the most documented individual vineyards in the appellation. Vinified separately and aged in the same barrique and large-cask combination as Via Nuova, it delivers rose petal, tar and spice on the nose with a round, long finish. The lower elevation and open aspect of Cannubi produce a more immediately expressive wine than either of the other single-vineyard labels.
Barolo Mosconi is drawn from the Mosconi parcel in Monforte d'Alba at elevations between 340 and 420 metres. The higher altitude and the compact soils of Monforte push the wine toward dark fruit, mineral depth and firm tannin that asks for several years of patience before the mid-palate opens.
Dolcetto is made from estate fruit and vinified for early drinking, with a light filtration before bottling.
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In The Glass
Nebbiolo from the village of Barolo and from Monforte and Serralunga are three related but distinct conversations, and the Boschis range makes all three audible.
Cannubi rises from the glass with rose petal and dried cherry, the aromatic signature that Barolo's western communes are known for. In the mouth, the tannin is round and present without roughness; the finish is long and the acidity keeps the fruit from going soft. It is the most immediately approachable of the three Barolos, though it repays a few years in bottle.
Mosconi is quieter at first. Dark cherry and blackcurrant sit beneath a mineral note, and the tannin, grown at altitude on compact Monforte soils, is firmer and more insistent. The mid-palate has concentration rather than openness. It needs time.
Via Nuova sits between them by design. The blend of six parcels produces lifted aromatics, firm tannin and a structured mid-palate with good length. The 2015 showed a tendency to close down initially; an hour in a decanter brought it into focus. The oak is present but well-integrated, and the wine finishes with the mineral cut that Nebbiolo delivers when farmed carefully and bottled without interference.
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A Bottle To Understand It
Barolo Via Nuova is the place to start. It draws Nebbiolo from each commune the estate farms, aged in the same barrique and large-cask combination as the single-vineyard wines, and bottled unfined and unfiltered. In the glass it shows lifted red fruit, firm mineral tannin and enough structural depth to develop for several years. Decant it an hour before serving: the 2015 opened considerably with air, and the 2018 shows the same kind of structured, layered character that benefits from breathing. Via Nuova does not flatten or simplify the estate's work; it assembles it into one legible, serious Barolo.
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Anecdote
Via Nuova began as a Barolo named after an actual street in the village of Barolo: a small parcel, a specific address, a place-name on the label. Chiara Boschis bottled it as a vineyard wine, the kind of single-site Barolo that the Langhe was increasingly interested in through the 1990s. Then the vineyard's name was absorbed into the broader Terlo designation, and the original single-parcel wine lost its legal name. Boschis kept the name and changed the wine: Via Nuova became an assembly of six parcels, two from each of the three communes she farms. A label that had once pointed at one specific piece of ground now pointed at the whole estate. Most people who walk down Via Nuova in Barolo today walk past without knowing what the name once meant for a bottle.
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Final Word
E. Pira & Figli is a small estate with a clear argument: eleven hectares of Nebbiolo across three communes, farmed by hand and organically, vinified without interference and bottled without fining or filtration. Chiara Boschis built that argument across four decades. The three Barolos are distinct enough to teach something about how place shapes Nebbiolo, and Via Nuova is the one bottle that holds the whole estate in a single pour.
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Sources
- https://www.pira-chiaraboschis.com/Storia.html
- https://www.pira-chiaraboschis.com/Vigne.html
- https://www.pira-chiaraboschis.com/Cantina.html
- https://www.pira-chiaraboschis.com/
- https://www.skurnik.com/producer/e-pira-chiara-boschis/
- https://www.pira-chiaraboschis.com/Barolo_Cannubi.html
- https://www.pira-chiaraboschis.com/Barolo_Mosconi.html
- https://www.pira-chiaraboschis.com/Barolo_ViaNuova.html
- https://www.nicks.com.au/products/2018-e-pira-chiara-boschis-barolo-via-nuova
- https://nobleselection.kork.ca/qc/en/our-wineries/e.-pira-figli-chiara-boschis/barolo-via-nuova/2015/14110278