Podere ai Valloni

History

Podere ai Valloni was founded in the 1960s and settled in the historic Ca' Finazzi in Boca, the home of the Maggiora lawyer Giovanni Battista Finazzi, who planted the first professional vineyard here in the second half of the 19th century.

In 1969, with the birth of the DOC Boca designation of origin, the Podere was registered at number 1 in the Register of Vineyards of Production of the new DOC.

Unfortunately, after a few years, in the second half of the 1970s, the vineyards disappeared from large parts of the hills in the area due to the abandonment of the countryside by young inhabitants.

It was in 1980 that Guido and Cristiana Sertorio bought the vineyard and cellar and began producing Boca DOC in a situation where the appellation was dying out. Luigi Veronelli was the first to talk about their wine in 1987, praising its qualities in his magazine EV. Luigi was very pleased with the unexpected revival of this top quality wine.

From the beginning, Podere ai Valloni was recognizable not only by the winery, but also by its "vineyard garden," cultivated with the utmost respect for the environment. Over the years, the area of the vineyard has increased with new purchases of neighboring plots, leading to the current size of 3.5 hectares.

The entire vineyard was dedicated by Guido to his wife Cristiana, architect who oversaw the restoration and renovation of everything, which is why he christened the vineyard Vigna Cristiana.

In the vineyard they never used chemical herbicides and, after years of integrated control, they have been doing organic farming since 2011. In 2014, they got certification from the ICEA Institute.

Today, Anna Sertorio and her husband Andrea, the current generation, are managing the vineyards and fulfilling the dream of founders Guido and Cristiana. This is namely to cultivate a beautiful wine estate, produce excellent quality wines and, above all, adopt a social model to manage everything from vineyard, cantina and tasting room with the utmost respect for nature. Among other things, rainwater is collected through the roof in 2 large cisterns. That means bv 140,000 liters of water annually used for everything in vineyard and cantina.

To the initial production of only Boca DOC, over the years they have added three wines in organic cultivation: both Nebbiolo Gratus and Sass Russ, new is the Vespolina Péperi.

Podere ai Valloni is located in the hilly area that separates the great groove of the Sesia Valley from the basins of Lakes Orta and Maggiore and is in the Valsesia Super Volcano Geopark, established by Unesco in 2015.

Some 290 million years ago, when the earth consisted of one continent called Pangea, a large volcano imploded. With the opening of the Atlantic Ocean and the drift of the continents that took place in the following geological epochs, the volcano remained on the African plate. Later, about 60 million years ago, the collision between Africa and Europe led to the formation of the Alps and at Valsesia, it folded 90°, exposing the crustal section.

It was a geological structure now fossilized, which formed a soil with unique characteristics, incredibly acidic and with a minerality that is the highest in all of Italy for viticulture.

Edoardo Dellarole, former president of the Association Geopark Sesia Valgrande, writes: "Boca is a wine son of fire, son of the Sesia Supervolcano."

Valsesia offers a route of particularly interesting views from the plains climbing to the glaciers of Monte Rosa.

On the hill on which stands the present residence Podere ai Valloni, there was a military observatory in the 18th century. Its location is unique in relation to the sun, but also the mountain breeze that blows through the vineyard making it a privileged place for wine growth.

Vineyard Cristiana is a productive vineyard, but also a beautiful garden, whose views and panoramas 360 degrees are an experience.

The main characteristic that distinguishes the wines of Boca has to do with the structure of the soil: as mentioned above, here millions of years ago was the giant Valsesia Supervolcano. Therefore, the soil consists of volcanic rock. The vines growing on these soils produce wines that are structured and particularly mineral with a pronounced acidity that makes them last a long time in the bottle. For this reason too, we can say that the wines produced at Boca are truly unique and different from any other Nebbiolo.

For vinification, they use only grapes from their own production, allowing full traceability. The yield per hectare is only 40 quintals (4000 kilos), although in the area it may reach 90q. This is because they have chosen to make a careful selection at every stage of the production cycle, prioritizing quality over quantity.

For the same reason, they leave Boca Vigna Cristiana in oak barrels for at least 3 years, to which a long aging in bottle before being released on the market. The aging period is more than double that prescribed by production regulations. They believe it is very important to give the wines time to refine and integrate all the infinite facets of their uniqueness, aware of the great longevity of these products with best highlighting the absolute special characteristics of the soil.

Fermentation is carried out using the pied de cuve technique, reproducing the indigenous yeasts present on our grapes. All wines are bottled on the estate, with the choice of sustainable materials.

And now a few very important data that show how small but also extremely qualitative Podere ai Valloni is with its wines

Export figures:

• Sass Russ - Total production of 3,801 bottles with worldwide exports of 1,329 bottles.

• Gratus - Total production of 2,039 bottles with worldwide exports of 847 bottles.

• Boca - Total production of 1,869 bottles with worldwide exports of 597 bottles.

So with the wines of Podere ai Valloni you really get wines that are very scarce on the market but are a very great added value for your wine cellar.