After founding Kalamass, Riccardo Boggio then had to contend with how to get the best out of the Serra Morenica di Ivrea.
When asked why he crushes his grapes by foot, Riccardo’s answer is one which I have heard winemakers say all too rarely: “Because it’s funny.”
There is a financial reality behind this winemaking decision (a desire to not spend thousands of Euros on machinery) as well as the stylistic preference for a portion of whole bunch in his fermentations, but for Riccardo these seem like secondary considerations.
“I crush the grapes with my friends and we cherish the moment every vintage,” he shares.
But don’t be fooled. Behind this relaxed manner is a studiousness and focus that becomes evident in Kalamass’ vineyards, cellar and, crucially, in the glass.
Pergola pros
One of the signatures of the Serra Morenica di Ivrea, the glacial ridge spanning from Lake Viverone in the east to the town of Ivrea in the west, is the Pergola Canavesana, the traditional system of vine-training which results in a large, umbrella-like canopy above and bunches hanging beneath.
For Riccardo, around 60% of his Erbaluce is planted in pergola, the remainder in guyot. The latter method gained popularity at the end of the 20th century, largely because it facilitated mechanised viticulture.
“At the end of the 90s and in the early 2000s some people put Erbaluce in rows because it helped the maturation of the grapes and you could use tractors.”
However, Riccardo is a pergola proselytiser, arguing that it has the key asset of offering vital shade to the grapes from the ferocity of the summer sun, a necessity as the climate changes. He is going back to tradition and using this training system for his future plantings of both Erbaluce and Nebbiolo, when it is appropriate.
“In 2022 and 2023 I planted two new vineyards of Erbaluce, all in pergola. In 2020 I planted a new vineyard of Nebbiolo which was done in rows because it wasn’t the perfect exposition for pergola and rows would help to achieve concentration, but next spring I have to plant another vineyard of Nebbiolo and for that I have chosen pergola.”
Nebbiolo
Kalamass has several wines which make use of Piemonte’s most-celebrated grape variety, both in single-varietal and blended expressions.
In the case of the latter, there is Ne Ba Ner, an easy-drinking vino rosso which Riccardo serves to us chilled. The name, easier to say after a sip, reveals the constituent parts: Nebbiolo, Barbera and Neretto.
“Neretto is a local variety in Canavese which used to be for giving colour to the wine but it wasn’t worked 100% because it has a lot of acidity and the plan struggled to completely mature the tannins, so you could end up with a wine with high acidity and tannins. But with climate change the tannins ripen properly and the acidity adds freshness to a blend,” he explains.
Barbera, which makes up 60% of the 2025 vintage of Ne Ba Ner (the remaining 40% evenly split between Nebbiolo and Neretto), is also used in Kalamass’ cherry-packed Ambiziosa, where it is co-fermented with a small amount of Erbaluce.
Kalamass Broglina meanwhile is a Canavese DOC Nebbiolo, taking its name from the south-facing, guyot-trained Broglina vineyard planted in 1999. With intense red fruit, veering into wild strawberry in the case of the 2021 vintage tasted, with a salty edge (a result of the moraine soil) and no astringency, it is a Nebbiolo which can be consumed in its youth, as the 2024 vintage we also sample demonstrates.
“The choice to bottle Nebbiolo young is an economical one. I have a project of long-ageing Erbaluce because I think Nebbiolo is more drinkable young than the Erbaluce.”
Riccardo is also experimenting with Nebbiolo elsewhere with a project in Canavese’s home of ‘heroic viticulture’, the terraced vineyards in the minuscule denomination of Carema.
“It’s an old vineyard near the cru of Sillanc which needs new vines and a lot of work. After its owner died, the family neither wanted to tend to it nor sell it, so they rent it to me. Over the last three years they have kept an eye on my work,” he explains.
Riccardo is certainly used to having his work in rented vineyards surveyed by the landowners – this was the case when he founded Kalamass in 2018.
Given the production rules for Carema DOC wines, when Riccardo produces this new Nebbiolo he will do so in the cellar of his longtime friend Vittorio Garda, winemaker of Sorpasso, so that he can label it ‘Kalamass Carema’. Riccardo will be returning the favour.
“Vittorio is going to make his Erbaluce in my cellar. Until this year he made Erbaluce in the Cantina Sociale, but vintage ‘26 will be his last there.”
Cutting through
The Kalamass winery is certainly geared up for white wine production.
Although he has the right to refer to his white as ‘Erbaluce di Caluso’ (something of a thorny issue in Northern Piemonte), Riccardo opts to eschew featuring the variety on his label in favour of the simpler ‘Caluso DOCG’.
“I thought a lot about it, but I chose ‘Caluso’ because I want to sell Canavese, not the grape. You don’t drink Nebbiolo, you drink Barolo. You don’t drink Pinot Noir, you drink Burgundy. You don’t drink Erbaluce, you drink Caluso.”
“At the moment the denomination is a bit limited so you can only use ‘Caluso’, but in the future I hope you can label with the villages – such as Caluso, Viverone and Agliè – in order to explain the differences inside Canavese.”
Riccardo looks to two French regions, Burgundy and Jura, for inspiration when making his Caluso.
“I think we have a lot to learn from the French producers. With Erbaluce you have to obtain beautiful bunches and touch the must and the wine as little as you can, you have to be patient, and you can particularly see that in wines from Jura.”
He notes that finding the right balance with Erbaluce is a challenge. In cooler vintages it is “like a knife”, in warmer years it can become flabby.
During exceptional years, Riccardo also produces a brut spumante, also designated as ‘Caluso’. Given how long it spends on its lees, 48 months in the case of the 2019 vintage, he is especially cautious about the yeasts he works with.
“With selected yeasts you can compromise the profile of the vintage if the yeast adds distinct flavours, with spontaneous fermentation if you don’t control it there are risks of oxidation and stopped fermentations, and this will affect the resultant levels of sugar in the wine.”
“For now,” Riccardo continues, “I don’t have a wine that I think is perfect, but perhaps I will never make it!”
“I can’t change any wine too much,” he says. “My job as a winemaker is to transmit the vintage into the wine. If I have a year like ‘22 or like ‘26 when it is very warm with no rain, I will obtain a fatter Erbaluce with less acidity, which is not my preference, but this is the vintage.”
Meet the beetles
In some years, it isn’t the weather that is the issue. Popillia japonica, a Japanese beetle which took a first class flight to Milano Malpensa Airport a decade ago, has become the scourge of viticulturists in northwestern Italy. These glistening copper and green pests feast on vine leaves and the vineyards of Piemonte offer a 42,000 hectare salad bar.
Last year an attack of these beetles began to strip away the canopy of Riccardo’s pergola vines, leaving some of the Erbaluce exposed to the sun and higher temperatures causing ripening to accelerate and the potential alcohol levels to spike. Fortunately, careful picking mitigated the issue, but the Popillia pest is not going away anytime soon.
“For now the only solution is insecticides, but it’s not much of a solution because you can’t use it a lot. Now we use Sulphur, but it’s a risk as you can burn the leaves if you use too much.”
Perspective
There is a huge amount to admire in Riccardo’s way of working and in the wines he makes, but perhaps his most admirable quality is that he has not lost sight of how fun it can be to work in wine, the occasional influx of insects aside. There are easier careers and there are certainly much more profitable ones – perhaps if he had followed his original plan to become a physiotherapist he would have a completely different outlook – but Riccardo still finds joy in what he does.
“In all jobs, not just winemaking, the foundation should be enjoying your work,” he says, doubtless braced for the upcoming harvest and looking forward to treading the grapes with his mates once again.
This article was originally published on our Substack.