Barbera
is a bit of a Bob Geldof of a grape variety. For years it was thought
of as rather coarse and inconsequential but in recent times its
reputation has been so rehabilitated that it is now taken extremely
seriously – and is worth rather a lot of money.
Until
not that long ago Barbera, the most planted vine in Piedmont, home of
Italy's world-famous, venerated but overpriced red wines Barolo and
Barbaresco, was viewed as almost a weed. The vine was thought capable
only of providing tart, early-maturing basic red for everyday drinking
in the region itself. But following the example of the late Giacomo
Bologna's mould-breaking Bricco dell'Uccellone bottling, an increasing
number of Piemontese growers have been taking it
seriously, ageing it in small French barrels and charging serious money
for it. Today Piedmont is the land not of two but three Bs, with
Barbera no longer a simple wine at all. Expect to pay anything from £6
to £20 ($11-40) for a bottle, the more expensive and extensive the oak,
the higher the price.
Barbera
is increasingly Piedmont's international calling card with newcomers to
Italian wine. Nebbiolo may be the region's most revered and demanding
grape, responsible for majestic Barolos and Barbarescos, but it is
difficult to grow and reasonably difficult to appreciate. It makes
wines of great subtlety that, typically, need many years in bottle
before they seem to warrant their high price tags. Barbera on the other
hand is a thoroughly modern wine if its open fruitiness can be
maximised, often with some slightly obvious oak.
As
ever in Piedmont, the question of oak is a controversial one. Many
producers use small French barriques, especially for their best lots of
fruit and most expensive bottlings. Some use the traditional large
Slavonian oak botte, much bigger, more neutral casks. Others
use a mixture or succession of the two, while there is no shortage of
completely unoaked Barbera. Some view this last style as inescapably
the least interesting. Others, including some who have in the past been
guilty of over-oaking their Barberas, suggest that we may see more and
more top quality Barbera fruit bottled with no or minimal oak in the
future – especially as global warming may result in Barberas with more
natural tannins and phenolics of their own than in the past.
The
grape being naturally high in acidity and low in tannin, growers have
been picking it later and later in an effort to reduce that acidity –
and the barriques can add a useful layer of their own tannins too. But
some producers are not content with expressing Barbera's admittedly
rather bland flavours of ripe berries, perhaps blackberries, they use
the permitted 10 per cent addition of another strongly flavoured grape
to beef up its colour and/or impact.
Tasting
scores of Barberas in Asti recently, I developed rather a soft spot for
those that tasted as though they contained a little Nebbiolo. At least
this blend is definitively and characteristically Piemontese. There
were others that tasted as though a bit of Cabernet Sauvignon had been
imported from France for colour and tannin that seemed to have
internationalised the wine, not always to its benefit.
The
outside world may associate the unremarkable town of Asti with sweet
fizzy stuff but it sees itself as the world capital of Barbera – with
good reason since Barbera d'Asti is the most common of the grape's
geographical denominations. Perhaps for this reason it is generally
less expensive than wines from the smaller Barbera d'Alba district but
Barbera d'Asti has some geographical advantages. Since both Nebbiolo
and Barbera are relatively late-ripening vines, they both have a claim
to the most propitious sites on Piedmont's rolling hillsides. Around
Alba however, Nebbiolo can command such high prices that Barbera is
virtually always planted on second-best sites, whereas around Asti the
Barbera vine reigns supreme and the best sites are devoted to it. And
in hot summers, on the white soils around Alba, Barbera can easily
become overripe.
It
is notable that seven of the nine Barberas nominated for Italy's
coveted tre bicchiere awards this year were Barbera d'Asti rather than
Barbera d'Alba. (There is also Barbera del Monferrato, usually
relatively simple but certainly very characteristic since this is
claimed as the birthplace of Barbera.) The commune of Nizza within the
Barbera d'Asti zone is petitioning to have its very own DOC.
Thus
it was that I found myself insisting to a driver at Turin airport
carrying a sign saying 'Barbera Meeting' that yes, it was me he was
meant to be speeding to Asti in his Mercedes. He was dubious. I was the
first woman he had even seen participate in this annual week of Barbera
tastings apparently. Not that the legendary Italian gallantry was much
in evidence at next morning's tasting when an old (Italian, male) hand
insisted I move to the other place at the table I happened to have
chosen, for the sole reason that he had been sitting in that particular
seat for the last seven years' tastings.
The
Barbera Meeting shows off Barbera after Barbera to journalists visiting
from all over the globe, so seriously is the grape now taken. The wines
are served blind in sensible flights of five poured into top quality
glasses by experienced and capable sommeliers. Only at the end did we
discover who had made what – although we did always know the wines' DOC
and vintage. My 70-plus tasting notes taken in Piedmont are
supplemented on my website's purple pages by more than 40 more I seem
to have accumulated over the past few months.
Vintage
differences in recent years are extremely apparent in Piedmont – a fact
confirmed by other tastings of a wider range of grape varieties. Some
producers even bravely showed us their 2003s, made very obviously from
last year's exceptionally hot summer. Many of these Barbera 2003s, even
from such admired practitioners as Elio Altare, are just too ripe, soft
and simple to seem worth the money being asked for them.
The
2002 vintage was, famously, a bit of a washout in Piedmont quite
literally and some producers did not even bottle some wines in that
vintage – although Barbera's late ripening meant it was less badly
affected than, say, Piedmont's third red grape Dolcetto. Although some
2002s were more successful than others, the vintage is dramatically
outshone by the 2001s which generally look several notches above the
norm. My scores out of 20 are notably higher for 2001s than for any
other recent vintage, including the soft, supple, ultra-fruity and
sometimes overripe 2000s. And as the list shows, all my favourite wines
were made in this beautifully balanced vintage.
MY FAVOURITE BARBERAS
Carlo Ferro, Roche 2001 Barbera d'Asti Superiore
Azelia, Vigneto Punta 2001 Barbera d'Alba
Damilano 2001 Barbera d'Alba
Grimaldi, Pistin 2001 Barbera d'Alba
Cantina Sociale di Mombaruzzo 2001 Barbera d'Asti Superiore Nizza
Bersano, Crenosina 2001 Barbera d'Asti Superiore
Tenuta La Meridiana, Tra La Terra e Il Cielo 2001 Barbera d'Asti Superiore
See
tasting notes for details and scores on more than 100 Barberas
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