Pride of Piedmont: What is next for Federica Boffa and the illustrious Pio Cesare winery

Of course, taking over the 140-year-old winery sounds daunting, even for someone like Federica. While Pio certainly wasn’t easy to replace, the globetrotting family man often brought his wife and daughter along on his many travels around the world to sell wine. “He was always luggage-in-hand, getting on planes, flying 200 days a year and collecting miles wherever he goes,” she recalls. This, and countless hours of training in all aspects of the business gave Federica an unshakable foundation to adapt. “In the beginning, I was under the impression that the wine business was an old man’s world,” she chuckles. “But I quickly realised the opposite as more and more young people, and women, are assuming important roles in winemaking.”

Coming into her own

On her biggest changes taking over, the fifth-generation winemaker says that there is no need to reinvent the wheel as “everything was performing well and as it should”. Together with the support of her cousin, Cesare Benvenuto—who was Pio Boffa’s right hand for many years, her leadership today saw beefing up in areas such as branding and social media marketing as well as hiring skilled labour for the vineyard. “Like my father, I wanted to build my own team with more or less the same age as myself. But, of course, still respecting the people that have been with us for a long time,” she says, when explaining how she envisions her team to go far with her into the future. Opening the doors to younger talents, she shares that she has ushered in a livelier atmosphere to work in as compared to the past.

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Today, three years after Federica’s reign, Pio Cesare stands firm in the region. Well-equipped with a team that shares a common passion—reaching as deep underground as their age-old vines—the winery continues to pursue winemaking as it knows how and yet preserves its rich heritage and traditions without yielding to the pressure of hopping on trends. “The family has always been very involved in the business and everyone does everything. No one holds down specific titles,” she affirms while pointing at her name card which bore no signs of a title. This means that her day can quickly go from working the vineyards to running fiscal numbers and answering online queries.

Maintaining the artisanal approach

The appellation of barolo and barbaresco is widely known for its long-standing tradition and there’s “not much room for innovation”. To ensure the continuity of this specific winemaking style, it all boils down to keeping the production of the wines very limited, allowing for stricter quality control. “We’re currently at 80 hectares of vineyards but only producing two to three times less than any winery of this scale,” she says, explaining her intention not to expand Pio Cesare’s production.

As the only extant winery located in the historical town of Alba that is built on Roman infrastructure “dating back over 2000 years ago”, one can imagine that space had always been a huge constraint—owing to conservation efforts enforced by local government laws.

A recent expansion plan to free up cellaring space for more wine to age sees a new facility in construction. It will situate itself across the original winery—where all the red wines are still produced—and remains connected by a series of underground tunnels and overhead bridges. Aiming to complete by the end of 2025, Federica hopes to leverage modern technological advancements in the production of white wines as well as maximise efficiencies in areas such as bottling, labelling and storing raw materials.

Leading the charge on white wines

“I don’t consider tradition a cage but rather a starting point,” she shares. Inspired by the success of her father’s once-controversial vision which he famously replaced two hectares of barbaresco vineyards with chardonnay in the 1980s and thereafter sauvignon blanc in the early 2000s, Federica has always had an affinity for white whites. “This is the only area where we can really experiment as the rules aren’t as strict as red wine production,” says Federica, expounding on her beliefs that white wines are a veritable reflection of the quality and standards of any world-class winery. “It’s much more challenging, especially in our terroir, to make good white wines than to make good barolo and barbaresco.”

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More recently, she accomplished a feat once thought impossible with the timorasso, an indigenous Piedmonte grape with roots tracing back to the Middle Ages. Investing in just under three hectares in the Colli Tortonesi region, she is currently biding her time with an aged timorasso which is said to tease “power, structure and longevity”. It is a wine—said to share similar qualities as riesling and chenin blanc—that checks all the boxes her father had when it comes to making white wines and will be “released in a few years”. For now, the wine world can only anticipate.

Future-proofing against climate change

While some experts argue that climate change may bring forth a golden era for the Langhe—a hilly area of Northern Italy that now boasts earlier harvests, softer tannins and fresher styles—the pernicious effects are nevertheless a worriment in the region. Over the years, the Pio Cesare wine family have also observed hotter summers, reduced rainfall in autumn and lesser snow in winter. Adapting to the fickle weather patterns, they have since acquired plots in Alta Langa, a mountainous region that sits at a higher altitude and is known to produce sparkling wines made from chardonnay and pinot noir. 

But in the spirit of experimentation, Federica planted nebbiolo vines instead, hoping to see if these varietals could thrive in high-altitude conditions near the famed appellations. This specific harvest, vinified using the time-tested family technique, has blossomed with positive results in recent years. While it could not be labelled as barolo and barbaresco due to the strict Italian regulations, it has since paved the way for the Pio Cesare Langhe nebbiolo.

Land in Barolo is notoriously expensive and it comes as no surprise as it shares the same latitude as Burgundy—another historical winemaking region. Pio Cesare’s last acquisition exercise happened in 2014. That saw an addition of ten hectares at the Mosconi appellation in Monforte d’Alba, a decision made by Pio Boffa when he turned 60 years of age. Produced annually since 2015 as part of the prized single vineyard collection, the Mosconi barolo is a supple yet complex wine—produced from vines above 60 years old—with superb ageing potential, redolent of ripe fruits and soft tannins.

Today, Federica is well aware of how epic guest experiences easily translate to viral online content. Starting from the Mosconi vineyard, she has recently finished constructing a tasting room on the hilltop, promising sprawling views of the rolling vineyards to visitors soon. “When guests visit Pio Cesare, they are visiting the wine production site which is in the city of Alba and they won’t see the vineyard. Until now,” she quips. “I want everyone to touch, breathe and smell the unique terroir of Mosconi.”

On the business forefront, the heiress is as determined as her father. One can see it in her eyes, tinted with a sunburst of soft hazel and green hues. In time to come, she plans to strengthen Pio Cesare’s distribution ties in France as well as establish a presence in emerging markets such as Eastern Europe and India. And despite the obvious hurdles ahead, Federica remains confident that Pio Cesare will remain one of the leading wineries in the Barolo region and continue to make high-quality wines for “the next 140 years”. Watch that space because the future is very much female in Piedmont and Pio Cesare.

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