“Family is the home of the heart.” Giuseppe Mazzini.
The Balbiano Winery was founded in 1941, thanks to Melchiorre Balbiano, and for seventy-five years has been the benchmark for the production of Freisa di Chieri.
Freisa di Chieri is a historic product, once known exclusively in its “amabile” sense, but now universally appreciated in its dry vinifications.
The company’s production also extends to all the typical wines of the province of Turin, such as Collina Torinese Bonarda, Collina Torinese Barbera, Collina Torinese Cari and Malvasia di Castelnuovo don Bosco.
The company’s philosophy has always centered on the motto “new technologies respecting and serving tradition”: emblematic proof of this is the very structure of the Company. A restored19th-century farmhouse houses the business premises, the production cellar and the aging cellar, which frame a product, Freisa di Chieri Balbiano, of absolute excellence. Of great value is the splendid Museum of Farming and Antique Toys: a collection of objects of farming use, which has thousands of pieces dating back to the last century.
Since 2003, the Balbiano Winery has taken part in the ambitious project to restore the Villa della Regina in Turin, devoting itself to replanting the historic 17th-17th-century vineyard. The vineyard, which enjoys a unique view overlooking Vittorio Veneto Square and the Gran Madre di Dio, finally went into production in 2008, when about 10 quintals of grapes (95 percent Freisa) were harvested and entrusted to the Faculty of Agriculture of the University of Turin to do some experimental microvinification.
The excellent analytical results also comforted chemically those already excellent ones appreciated on the organoleptic side, creating much anticipation for the first official harvest. In 2009, in fact, the vineyard donated about 50 quintals of healthy, ripe grapes (the harvest even took place on September 10, 2009), which resulted in a wine, the widely anticipated “Vigna della Regina” 2009, and officially presented on April 13, 2011.
Since the 2011 vintage, “Vigna della Regina” has officially joined the DOC area, thus becoming Freisa di Chieri DOC vineyard “Villa della Regina”: the only “urban” wine in Italy.
Since the end of 2014, Villa della Regina’s Royal Vineyard has been twinned with Clos Montmartre, an urban vineyard in Paris. The historic twinning prompted the French cousins to award Dr. Franco Balbiano and his son Luca, respectively, the honors of Ambassador and Honorary Citizen of the Republic of Montmartre. An award never granted to any Italian.
Since its first edition, the Balbiano Winery has been included in the membership of the
Masters of Taste
, a prestigious event sponsored by the Turin Chamber of Commerce and SlowFood.
