2010 Le Piane, Boca DOCG, Alto Piemonte, Italy.
In a dark New York Italian restaurant, this wine was brought out to be enjoyed by a small group of wine producers, mainly from Italy, with me tagging along to represent California, and it quite literately silenced the table with its presence and greatness. The Le Piane Boca DOCG 2010 is a Nebbiolo, or Spanna, as they call it in this Northern Piemonte region, of exceptional quality and depth with the elegant finesse of some of the most prized Barbaresco wines, showing off structure, depth and length in the glass. This dark garnet/brick hued Nebbiolo delivers a generous full bodied palate of black cherry, damson plum, wild strawberry and red currant fruits, supported by firm, but velvety tannins, balsamic notes, cedary spice, tarry black licorice, truffle, mineral tones, wilted roses, tobacco leaf and dried mountain herbs. As the winery explains, the Boca region almost disappeared and was largely forgotten for generations, but in the last few decades has re-emerged, only to be awarded among the 50 best wines in Italy, adding 23rd place in the Best Italian Wine Award recently, and to have best scores and articles among the most important wine guides, with wine like this a big reason! This wine just kept getting better and better in the glass, its complexity and pleasure was completely seducing and it certainly rakes as one of the best wines of the year so far, thank you Lavagna restaurant for the meal and this incredible bottle. Le Piane first made their Boca, signature effort, in 1998, so they are not an old winery by Italian standards, but they are one to search out for the quality, in particular the top Boca DOCG, but I do love their more approachable offerings as well, like the La Maggiorina Rosso field blend.
Le Piane, as noted before here at Grapelive.com, is a small artisan producer in the Boca zone of Northern Piedmonte, in the highest area of this famous wine growing region that is set between the Valle Sesia and Lake Orta, nestled in the foothills of the Lower Alps. The wines here, once a very remote, out of the way, place were chewy, rough and rustic, are now some of the most sought after and coveted wines in the world, with Le Piane being one of the stars, especially with their top Boca DOCG bottlings, like this one, which are exceptional and rival their more famous cousins in Barolo and Barbaresco. The Boca area is underpinned by its special soils, which are glacial gravels over porphyry (rock) of ancient volcanic origin, that along with the Alpine cool nights make this terroir incredibly compelling and in recent times the these wines have taken on a much more serious significance with many wines getting world wide attention, with Le Piane being one of those in the spotlight and showing why these wines are must have efforts for Nebbiolo enthusiasts and savvy collectors. My Austrian sommelier friend Peter Steiner, long ago introduced me to Le Piane, for which I’m eternally grateful and I remember him blowing me away with a magnum of the 2006 Boca! Le Piane’s 2010, a blend of 85% Nebbiolo and 15% Vespolina, saw a one 40 maceration and fermentation in a combination of stainless and wood open top vats with daily punch-downs, after which the wine was pressed to large Botti to age close to 4 years before bottling. The results can be, and are, as seen here, spectacular and I highly recommend this one, especially in top years, like this fantastic 2010 vintage, for obsessed Nebbiolo lovers, which I happily am a card carrying member of!
($85-100 Est.) 96 Points, grapelive