Christoph Künzli is, without doubt, the modern saviour and principal ambassador of the small Boca denomination on the east side of the Sesia river. This once important area, with between 1-2,000 hectares of vineyard in the nineteenth century, had shrunk to a mere 10 hectares by the early 1990s. Christoph learnt how to make wine in Chianti Classico at Podere Il Palazzino in 1982. He then became a wine importer and distributor in his native Switzerland, which gave him a chance to learn about the highest quality fine wines. He particularly credits learning to taste with Giorgio Grai, a legendary consultant from Bolzano (Alto Adige), and Giulio Gambelli, Tuscan master taster. He also acknowledges the influence of Francois Millet, then at Comte Georges de Vogüé in Burgundy, for teaching him the difference between very good wine and truly great wine on the basis of the quality of the site of the vineyard, increasing vine age and respectful handling in the winery. 

In 1989, Christoph was encouraged by Paolo de Marchi, whose family own nearby Proprietà Sperino, to visit a simple farmer, Antonio Cerri, in Boca. Cerri had a small mixed farm with corn, cows and just 0.5 hectares of vineyard. When he started to receive a state pension, he stopped his other activities and busied himself solely with his wine, a true artisan producer. As Christoph says: “Cerri’s wine called me.”

He was so impressed with it, especially the seriously mature vintages, and with Cerri now in his 80s, he sought to rent the vineyard. Cerri was not in favour, but his family persuaded him to relent in 1995. Christoph then spent 10 years finding other top sites and creating what became Le Piane, named after the area in which the Cerri vineyard was located. His driving motivation was to make truly great wines that can rival the best in the world.

“My colleagues couldn’t understand that sometimes human beings move because of their heart, not because of money. A lot of times I was asked why I didn’t go to Barolo. I came to Boca purely because I found the best wine of my life – it was a love story. Some find a wife, I found my ideal wine,” says Christoph.

The plan had been for Christoph, still living mainly in Switzerland, to manage the company and for his colleague Alexander Trolf, from Innsbruck but working with Grai in Alto Adige, to be the winemaker. However, sadly, Trolf died in 1998. Since then, Christoph has been hands-on.

The work in the 10 hectares of owned vineyard has included two main initiatives. Cerri’s old wide-spaced vines have been retrained and interplanted with additional vines. At the same time, organic matter has been added over the years to the vineyards, a much-needed enrichment of Boca’s shallow porphyry-based soils. The blend for Boca DOC at Le Piane is typically 85 per cent Nebbiolo and 15 per cent Vespolina, made with the fruit of 30–50-year-old vines.

“Vespolina really adds something to the Nebbiolo, I have done many experiments in the cellar to prove it. It gives spiciness, it gives better colour and allows the wines to keep their fresh ruby colour,” says Christoph.

In the winery, the approach for the Boca DOC wines is very much old-school, learnt from the previous generation of greats such as Bruno Giacosa, Beppe Rinaldi and Giacomo Conterno. A rigorous selection of the most perfect grapes is made, followed by a long maceration on the skins of up to two months with manual punch-downs. After fermentation with ambient yeast, the free-run and the pressed wine are blended and sent directly to neutral casks, where they remain for four years. The wine is racked only annually and, apart from adding sulphur at bottling, is otherwise untouched with no fining, filtering or other adjustment. The result is wines of exceptional balance with fine red plum fruit, very perfumed but also quite powerful.

Two further Boca DOC wines are or have been made. ‘Plinius’ was the result of high fermentation temperatures in 2007 and 2017, the final year this wine was made. Again, Christoph did not intervene but allowed the wines to resolve their own issues even when the fermentation stopped and resumed later. 2025 will see the initial release of a wine in homage to and called ‘Antonio Cerri’. It will be made from fruit from the best of the oldest Cerri vineyard and the adjacent Meridiana site, subject to a full five years in cask.

Alongside his own achievements, Christoph’s 30 years in Boca have also seen a revival of winemaking by companies in the denomination which had stopped producing and a handful of newcomers. Truly, wine producers – and wine lovers – have much to thank him for.

“The problem is I’m now 30 years older than when I made the decision to come to Boca, so I have to accept that I will never see my wines after 60 years. The next generation will see if my wines are at the same level as Cerri’s, we don’t know it yet,” he remarks.