Barbaresco - Pajè - Boffa

Boffa Carlo e Luigi's Barbaresco DOCG Pajè is the wine that demonstrates the full depth and ambition of this artisan family from the Asti area - the same family that produces a highly structured Barbera Superiore, but that with Pajè reaches the absolute pinnacle of Piedmontese winemaking: Nebbiolo di Barbaresco from one of the most respected and highly suited Additional Geographical Mentions in the entire appellation.

Pajè is one of the historic MGAs in the municipality of Neive - the second most important municipality in the Barbaresco appellation after the one of the same name, generally producing Barbaresco with greater structure and longevity than the others. The Pajè mention identifies a specific vineyard on Tufo di Sant'Agata Fossili soils - the calcareous-clayey marl that characterizes some of Neive's most elegant crus - with an exposure and soil composition that ensure slow, even ripening and exceptional phenolic quality for the Nebbiolo. Boffa's Pajè comes from a vineyard the family knows intimately, cultivated with the same generations-old artisan care that distinguishes the entire estate's production.

Nebbiolo di Barbaresco - the same grape variety as Barolo but grown on different soils and generally at a lower elevation - expresses in this Neive terroir a finesse and elegance that clearly distinguish it from more powerful and austere Barolos. Boffa's chosen maturation is precise and respectful: 18 months in 25-hectolitre French oak casks - medium-sized vessels that ensure gradual oxygenation and more elegant wood integration than a small barrique, without the aromatic break caused by large 50-hectolitre casks - followed by 12 months of bottle aging before release. In total, almost 3 years from harvest to customer for the 2022 vintage.

The 2022 vintage in Piedmont was one of the hottest and driest of the last few decades - conditions that produced Nebbiolo of great concentration and exceptional phenolic ripeness, with softer, more approachable tannins than in cooler vintages, but with the structure and depth to guarantee a decade of longevity. A vintage to keep and wait for.

On the nose, it is elegant and layered - all the charm of Neive Nebbiolo: dried rose and violet, cherry and sour cherry, raspberry, rhubarb, pipe tobacco, leather, oriental spices and a precise calcareous minerality that directly recalls Pajè's tuffaceous soils. On the palate, it is structured and long - present tannins already well polished by aging in large casks, vibrant natural acidity that is Nebbiolo's genetic signature and ensures verticality and longevity, harmonious glyceric sweetness and an exceptionally long, persistent finish with notes of red fruit, spices, tobacco and minerality that evolve for minutes. Serve at 18-20°C with at least one hour of decanting. It expresses its best between 5 and 15 years from the vintage.