Barbera

We've been having a lot of fun the last couple years selling all kinds of Italian Barberas here at the store.  Usually our sales have been everyday-priced lighter reds that are frankly perfect for most of our dinner table needs.  Wines like these show cherry, blueberry and raspberry fruit flavors and when put in oak, vanilla and additional complexity.  So why buy inferior bargain Pinot Noir when you could have something as fine, flavorful and food-friendly as Italian Barbera?

While the cheap stuff is nice, should you want to spend twenty or thirty dollars on your dinner red, Barbera offers a sophisticated alternative to Nebbiolo, the great wine of Italy.   While young Nebbiolo can be closed and hard as nails, Barbera shows a soft body with ample accessible fruit.  Again, perfect for most of our dinnertime needs.

Barbera d'Asti is the best known and best quality Barbera in the marketplace.  Asti is located just south and east of the center of the esteemed Piedmont wine appellation in northwest Italy.  The Nizza DOCG appellation lies entirely within the Asti borders and is home to the very finest Barberas.  Nizza boasts century old vines offering intense cherry and blackberry fruit.  Some examples from this region may be as hard and closed as young Nebbiolo so if you choose one of these, have your decanter handy.

Ampelographers are the scientists who study grapevines.  They have determined the Barbera grape had its origins in the nearby Monferrato region.  The earliest written Barbera documentation is from around 1250 but using DNA science, the ampelographers peg its origins back to the seventh century.  It is believed to have a common ancestor with the Cotes du Rhone grape, Mourvedre.

Piedmont is the finest wine appellation in Italy and the Nebbiolo-based Barolos and Barbarescos can command prices beyond most of our pocketbooks.  That is where Barbera comes into play.  It is a vigorous and prolific vine that does well wherever planted.  Nebbiolo is difficult and requires the best vineyard locations.  Barbera is planted everywhere else.  While Nebbiolo sales pay the bills, for those working in the Piemontese wine trade, it's Barbera that is the popular favorite.  

And by the way, if you enjoy the fresh fruity zing that Italian reds show so well, you're probably tasting an incognito Barbera component in the blend. 

How popular is Barbera?  Of the historic Italian wine grapes it ranks third in plantings behind Sangiovese and Montepulciano.  In Piedmont half of all vineyard plantings are Barbera.  In its entirety Italy has fifty thousand acres in Barbera.