The Grower of the Year Award goes to Gianni Doglia

Gianni Doglia destiny was written, sooner or later he would have become Grower of the Year. Now fifty years old, Doglia was born in among the family vineyards and has been playing with it from an early age. Parents Bruno and Marisa grew about six hectares of vineyards and sold their grapes to local merchants and to historical customers, often local, they'd sell young wine in demijohns. In this small family business, Gianni grew up with a passion for the grapevine which first led him to undertake university studies in viticulture and oenology and then to become a full-time winemaker.

The beginnings

In the mid-1990s, Gianni began giving some advice to local winemakers and, at the same time, making wine in the family cellar. Since 1999 - back home for good - he's been in charge of the vineyards and the cellar full time, with the complete trust of his father. Under his push, with the help of his sister Paola, who has also returned to work on the farm, the hectares of vineyards are now 17.

Gianni Doglia's passion for Barbera

Gianni focused first on Moscato d'Asti, the main wine of the area and one that's very difficult to manage. Having become "the top of the class" on Moscato, Gianni returned to devote himself to his first love, i.e. the house reds, Barbera first and foremost. In 1998 the Barbera d'Asti Boscodonne was born, which immediately emerged as the company's vintage Barbera, bottled young and without any aging in oak. "I gave my first Barbera simply the name of the area in which the vineyard grows" she says "The place is called that way because at the beginning of World War I three women who had their husbands at the front went to live together in an old farmhouse to give themselves courage." It's a vineyard of just over one and a half hectares and about 40 years of age, from which about 9,000 bottles are obtained yearly. Today this first Barbera has been joined by other more important Barbera, including a Nizza from a rented vineyard in Nizza Monferrato, and other red wines, but Gianni remains very attached to Boscodonne because the development of this wine was the result of great work performed in the vineyard: "Barbera grapes obtained from high yields produce drinkable wines, but lean and acidic and I didn't want that. If you decide to lower the yields, the resulting wine instead has such a concentration that, to soften it requires time in oak, but again it was not my idea of ​​a young Barbera. After various tests, first of all on the most suitable vineyard and then on the yields and the way to manage it and on the vinification (with maceration times and fermentation temperatures) the Barbera Boscodonne of my heart was born." The one that conquered the Tre Bicchieri

Barbera d'Asti Boscodonne '20 - Tre Bicchieri

The 2020 version has a very intense hue with ruby​​/purple nuances still very rich in violet reflections. The nose offers an explosion of fruity aromas where ripe cherries rule, albeit leaving room for hints of wet soil and bark lending complexity. The palate, while being very rich and almost chewable, is crossed from start to finish by a splendid acidic/savoury vein that determines the almost perfect balance of the long aftertaste.

Gianni Doglia - Castagnole delle Lanze (AT) - giannidoglia.it

by Gianni Fabrizio