San Fereolo is one of Piedmont’s most intellectually demanding estates - a producer whose wines challenge assumptions about grape, place, and time. Founded in the 1990s by Nicoletta Bocca, the estate lies in the hills of Dogliani, an area long associated with Dolcetto, though rarely pursued with this level of ambition or resolve.

From the beginning, Bocca approached Dogliani with a seriousness usually reserved for Piedmont’s grander appellations. Farming is fully biodynamic, with no chemical intervention and a deep reliance on observation rather than correction. The vineyards are worked slowly and manually, guided by the belief that clarity in the glass begins with balance in the soil. Nothing is forced, accelerated, or cosmetically adjusted.

Time is the estate’s most defining tool. Fermentations are long and patient, macerations extended, and élevage unfolds in large, neutral oak followed by prolonged bottle ageing. Many wines are released only after close to a decade, once they’ve found their natural equilibrium. This alone places San Fereolo outside convention - especially in a region where Dolcetto is typically bottled young and consumed quickly.

The flagship wine, San Fereolo, is Dolcetto reimagined. Structured, savoury, and remarkably long-lived, it carries a depth and gravitas that feels closer in spirit to Barolo than to the grape’s usual expression. Dark fruit, dried herbs, earthy spice, and mineral tension unfold slowly, supported by firm yet resolved tannins. The wines don’t announce themselves; they reveal themselves.

These are wines of conviction rather than compromise. Cerebral, grounded, and quietly radical, San Fereolo reflects Nicoletta Bocca’s belief that true greatness in wine comes not from intervention or volume, but from patience, integrity, and absolute respect for nature.