Boca DOC is a small denomination less than ten miles north of Ghemme on the eastern side of the Sesia river. The denomination takes in the commune of Boca and parts of four others. Currently, 17 hectares are in production. Despite being on the eastern side of the river, Boca’s soils are volcanic in origin and share the porphyry of Bramaterra. The soil is very stony and poor in nutrients. In a warming climate, the denomination also benefits from a relatively high elevation above sea level at 420–520 metres, the highest vineyards in Alto Piemonte.
Old vintage of Spanna (Nebbiolo)
Although a small denomination, Boca was well known in the past as being a source of great wines. In medieval times, in 1362, Pietro Azario, a chronicler in Novara, declared Boca wine to be rinomato sin dall’antichità (‘renowned since antiquity’). In 1787, Gaetano Perrucconi di Montalbano oversaw the local vineyards in Boca belonging to the Diocese of Novara and bought some of the best for himself. In 1859 Bernardo Vallana inherited vineyards that his uncle Perrucconi had bought and bottled wine in hand-blown bottles. In turn, this became the Vallana company in 1937. Antonio Vallana was the first to use the Simplon railway tunnel, opened in 1905, to export wine to Switzerland and Germany. Historic bottles from the middle of the twentieth century of Vallana’s Spanna are still on the market today. The modern revival of Boca has been led by Christoph Künzli, the Swiss wine merchant turned winery owner at Le Piane, from 1995, as detailed below.
The wines of Boca DOC must be blends with 70–90 per cent Nebbiolo and 10–30 per cent Vespolina and/or Uva Rara. Otherwise, the regulations are as in Ghemme: the maximum yield for standard and riserva wines is 56 hectolitres per hectare. The standard wine must be aged for a minimum of 34 months before release, of which a minimum of 18 months must be in wood. This is increased to 46 months and 24 months for riserva wines.
