“Poderi Garona” Winery

Duella Renzo’s winery, «Poderi Garona», is named after the homonymous site in the town of Boca. This site isn’t very famous among younger people but it’s well known by many older folks who live nearby thanks to the great wine produced here.

The “Poderi Garona” Winery of Duella Renzo takes its name from the locality of the same name located in the municipality of Boca, not very known to younger people but remembered by some old local people for the excellent wine that is produced. The “Poderi Garona di Duella Renzo” winery is relatively young as formalization but is based on the centenary tradition of the Family, started by the great grandfather Daniele Duella, carried on by grandfather Luigi, a great winemaker and cellarman , and then only partially handed down to two of his four children.

After the death of  grandfather Luigi, the children transformed what was a full-time job into a passion, this led to the abandonment of some vineyards and for others the downsizing. After several changes, but driven by this desire to avoid losing track of a lot of work done by my father Guido, I decided to collect the witness as in a relay race.

This witness is still carried out through further acquisitions of vineyards that are gradually acquired by avoiding the abandoned by the old owners.

The Wine of the Popes

The Boca, wine of the Popes. Yes, because the chronicles hand down to us a curious anecdote linked precisely to this wine, so good that it is also appreciated by the high prelates.

In particular, the visit of the Patriarch of Venice, Cardinal Giuseppe Sarto, accompanied by the Bishop of Novara, Monsignor Eduardo Pulciano, dates back to 1900; during this pilgrimage it was offered to them by the young parish priest of Boca, Don Michele Merlino, of the local wine that was so appreciated as to make Monsignor Pulciano say “Eminence, this is really Cardinals wine“. The Patriarch replied: “Excellency, forgive me, but I am not of your opinion, this is not wine for Cardinals, but wine from Popes,” and this response was as joking as it was prophetic, given that on 4 August 1903 he was appointed Pope with name of Pius X.

The foundation of the Sanctuary of Boca is connected to the violent death of two local spouses following which a wall with a fresco depicting the Crucifix, later transformed into a small chapel, was erected in the 17th century. This was enlarged in the second half of the eighteenth century following some miraculous cures. The influx of pilgrims soon made the construction insufficient so that in 1819 a further extension was decided, which will be entrusted to a young architect born in Ghemme, the then twenty-two year old Alessandro Antonelli, who rewrote the project by proposing a majestic building in style neoclassical. The construction will last a long time and only at the beginning of the 1970s the main structural works can be said to have concluded with the completion of the frontal staircase.