2025 Boasso Dolcetto d'Alba DOC

Before Barolo made Piedmont famous, Dolcetto was what the farming families of the Langhe actually drank at their own dinner tables — and the Boasso family, who've been farming this ground since the 1950s, still makes it that way: honest, fresh, and built for everyday food, not the cellar.

Giuseppe came home from World War II to a traditional Piedmontese farm growing a bit of everything — vines, hazelnuts, some livestock. His son Franco grew the estate through the 1970s and 80s, and the family started estate-bottling in the mid-1980s after years of simply selling their grapes off. Today Franco runs things with sons Ezio, who handles the vines and cellar, and Claudio, who runs tastings — a small, family-run operation that still treats every wine in its range, from this Dolcetto up to its prized Barolo crus, with the same care. That's notable: plenty of Barolo producers treat their Dolcetto as an afterthought. Boasso doesn't.

That matters more than it sounds like, because these same hands also farm Gabutti and Lazzarito, two of the most quietly prestigious vineyard names in Serralunga d'Alba — Gabutti shared with cult legend Cappellano, Lazzarito shared with the celebrated house of Vietti. The same attention that goes into those cellar-worthy Barolos goes into this bottle too; it's simply built to be opened tonight rather than in ten years.

The name itself comes from "dosset," the local dialect word for the little hills the grape is grown on — Dolcetto isn't actually related to "dolce" (sweet) at all, despite what the name suggests. It's a dry, food-friendly red, and in the hands of a serious Barolo family like the Boassos, it's one of the best values in the entire region.