Grape Variety: Barbera

Colour:

Red

The Barbera vine is native to Piedmont, probably to the hills of Monferrato, where it was documented as early as the 13th century, but it was likely disseminated there much earlier. Italy’s second most widely planted red variety, it accounts for thirteen of the country’s 200 appellations.

Barbera is a reliable and hardy vine, thriving in warm to hot climates and producing generously. However, Barbera’s potential quality is best achieved in Piedmont’s cooler climate and chalk and manganese soils, where it occupies over half the vineyard area.

The region’s long ripening period brings its rich, ripe fruit and relatively gentle tannins into balance with a crisp, sustaining acidity offset by slight rustic notes. Easily drinkable when released, good vintages from superior microclimates age with considerable grace over the mid-term, either with or without benefit of oak contact.

The finest Piedmontese Barberas are pure varietal wines identified by a village name (Barbera d’Asti, Barbera d’Alba) and occasionally a vineyard name. Elsewhere, this grape is usually part of a blend, lending substance and structure to lighter varieties or fruit and softness to more tannic ones.

Our Piedmontese Barberas are organic, wild and very rustic. They tend to be strong, sour and savoury, intense with complex and heady perfumes and palates of pungent vitality, The Vigna del Noce (Barbera d’Asti Superiore) - made from 80-yr old vines and the flagship wine from Renato and Ezio Trinchero from Agliano Terme in Asti. This powerful Barbera undergoes 45-day maceration on the skins, enjoys a leisurely fermentation in 50-hl Slavonian oak barrels and is aged for a further minimum of 2-3 years in large botte. The wild-yeast fermented Barbera d’Asti “Ronco Malo” from Vittorio Bera (Canelli,Piemonte) is a classic Barbera cherry-amour - it brilliantly grips your tongue, throat and attention; their unfiltered Barbera frizzante (slightly sparkling) Le Verrane displays varietal notes of mulberry,cherry-soda, balsam and mint, with faint traces of liquorice. The wine of Alba generally have greater finesse and fewer rougher edges - the tendency is towards red rather than dark fruits and less tannic structure.