Eugenio Bocchino
La Morra (CN) - PIEDMONT
Eugenio Bocchino and Cinzia Pelazza cultivate around five hectares of vineyards in La Morra, right in the heart of the Barolo country. Some plots were once owned by Cinzia's grandfather. Others were added during their now 20+ year winemaking careers.
Like many who have studied economics, Eugenio got bored and felt that he needed to do something completely different. He started working in a cellar in Barbaresco, while also trying his luck as a pro-skier. Skiing didn’t make him famous, so in 1996 Eugenio produced his first vintage of 500 bottles of Nebbiolo.
In 2000 Eugenio and Cinizia began to introduce natural winemaking practices into their vineyards. Thanks to Cinzia’s background in biology, and keen interest in fungi and soils and how they interact with vines, they also started to incorporate some biodynamic farming principles. Cinzia has done a lot of research on the subject over the years and translated French winemaker Nicolas Joly’s book on biodynamic wine into Italian. In 2010 Eugenio and Cinizia became members of Joly's Renaissance de Terroir Group and the natural wine movement, ViniVeri.
Today, there is a consistent effort to reduce sulphur and especially copper in the vineyards, including by experimenting with various preparations and oils. They only use indigenous yeasts. Aging is done in traditional botti rather the new oak barrels. The wines are neither clarified nor filtered. No additives are allowed with the exception of a little sulphur.
Eugenio is old school in his winemaking, using techniques that require little elaboration. He believes that wines should reflect good soils and pristine grapes rather than what happens in the cellar. They try to avoid over-extracting their wines by doing as few rimontaggi (pump-overs) as possible during fermentation. They also carry out minimal racking during ageing. They treat their Nebbiolos almost like white wines.
The result is wines that are open and approachable, emphasising purity and elegance, with beautifully managed tannins.
