Why it matters
The producer
Balbiano Melchiorre farms 22 hectares in the Collina Torinese zone of the Turin hills and has built its range around one decision: making Freisa di Chieri dry. Most Piedmontese producers treat Freisa as a grape for easy, slightly sweet fizz. Balbiano ages it seriously, produces two distinct superiore expressions from different parcels, and has done so across three generations since Melchiorre Balbiano founded the estate in 1941.
The estate sits in Andezeno, a small town roughly 20 kilometres east of Torino, in the Collina Torinese hills that ring the city to the east and south. The zone is not Barolo or Barbaresco country. Its grape is Freisa, a native Piedmontese variety with a long local history but a reputation that spent decades in decline. Balbiano is one of a handful of estates that kept making it dry and kept taking it seriously.
Place and vineyards
Where the wines begin
Collina Torinese is the DOC zone that covers the hills encircling Torino, named for the city they surround. The zone is defined by its native red grapes, Freisa foremost among them, with Barbera and Bonarda planted alongside. The hills give moderate elevation, good sun exposure on the slopes, and enough altitude to preserve the acidity that Freisa needs to hold its shape as a dry red.
Freisa di Chieri is the more specific appellation within that zone, centred on the area around Chieri, a hill town south of Turin whose connection to the grape goes back centuries. Under the Freisa di Chieri DOC, the superiore category requires longer aging and produces wines with greater depth and aging potential than the base version. Balbiano's two superiore labels, Barbarossa and Vigna Villa della Regina, both carry that designation.
In the cellar
Vineyards and cellar
The estate farms 22 hectares across the Collina Torinese hills. The Barbarossa label draws from the oldest estate parcels, where vine age concentrates the fruit and gives the wine its denser mid-palate and capacity to develop over many years. The Villa della Regina vineyard is a separate, discrete plot inside Turin, farmed for the prestige Freisa expression.
Barbera is vinified in stainless steel and released to show its natural character: bright acidity, intense ruby color, and fruit-forward palate without oak overlay. For the Freisa superiore wines, the approach prioritizes aging over early fruit expression: the wines are held longer before release and develop tertiary aromas through that time in bottle.
Wines to know
The range in view
Balbiano produces three expressions of Freisa di Chieri and one Collina Torinese Barbera from estate vineyards.
Freisa di Chieri DOC Superiore Barbarossa is the estate's structured dry Freisa, sourced from the oldest vineyard parcels. It opens with fresh fruit aromas that gradually give way to leather and suede. On the palate it is dry and full, with well-defined tannins that are firm without weight, and a long aging arc that develops the wine's facets over years.
A useful way in
A bottle to begin with
Start with Vigna Villa della Regina, the Freisa di Chieri DOC Superiore from the restored vineyard inside Turin. It is dry Freisa in its most concentrated form: soft tannins, bright acidity, and a long aromatic development through black pepper, tobacco, leather, and cloves. The fruit does not disappear on the palate but shifts into the background as the spicy, tertiary character comes forward. The acidity keeps it fresh and gives the wine the grip to age. It is sourced from a vineyard no other producer farms, with an address that appears on no other Italian DOC label. That singularity carries through to the glass.