Grape Varietal - Barbera
The Barbera grape has been gaining a
greater appreciation and more respect for the last 20 years. It was so widely
planted that is became considered as ordinary and lost its value. Barbera is
the most common grape in the north-western part of Italy known as Piemonte. In
Piemonte, Barbera is an everyday wine that is found on all households tables
and all local restaurants and taverns. Barbera always gives way to the more
noble of wines from Piemonte, the other notorious grape known as Neddiolo.
Nebbiolo is used for the more special occasions and professional affairs, but
Barbera accumulates fifteen times more acreage than Nebbiolo.
Barbera is characterized by it’s
‘lower-than-usual yields and French oak barrels’. Barbera is a natural at
producing more concentrated wines when it is grown on a site that is specific
to it’s necessities as a grape. It cannot be too cool or poorly exposed to
light because it has a natural excess of acidity and a shortage of tannins,
causing it to initially be more sensitive. Their shortage of tannins is usually
counteracted by the oak barreling, which also leaves higher acidity wines. Some
Barbera winemakers will de-acidify wines by adding calcium carbonate to them.
The fermentation of Barbera is relatively standard in comparison to its
neighboring grapes. It is a relatively easy vine to grow which explains why it
is so widely planted. It is very common in Piemonte, Lombardy around Milan, Sardinia,
and the Colli Piacentini.
The Barbera grape is an extremely
durable and withstanding grape. It is used as a bulk grape and gets a lot of
its attention from being blended. This grape produces a very rich, bold, and
intense flavor at harvest which allows for it to be versatile and used freely
with blending. It adapts well to any combinations because of its high acidity and wonderfully strong
fruit flavors, so it can be added in a small or large quantity. However,
Barbera does not often make its way onto the label of the bottle or jug when it
is combined, whether is it a trace amount or a hefty bunch.
An interesting event for this grape was
when a group of the tome Piemonte producers joined together to try to produce a
wine of the best Barberas made by combining all of their very best Barberas.
They supervised the blend by the modernist Riccardo Cotarella. The elite group
consisted of Braida, Chiarlo, Coppo, Prunotto, and Vietti.
Barbera is made to be consumed when
young. Most Barberas are described as jammy with lots of berries and dark
fruits. There are a few common wood descriptors such as vanilla, toasty, and
oaky. They are often fizzy, light and usually sell at a decent price. Barbera
is best paired with most cheeses, salmon, gamebirds, heavy pastas and seafood
with heavier cream sauses, duck, goose and Italian sausage.
In the Primorski coastal region of
Slovenia is the only wine region outside of Italy but within Europe that
thoroughly enjoys Barbera as much as its own growing region. Outside of
Europe, there is a great appreciation
for all things Italian and Barbera is amongst one of the grapes and items that
has highly benefited from this fascination. California has dedicated a lot of
grounds to the growth of the Barbera grape. Another area where Barbera has
planted its hands has been in Argentina at the foot of the Andres in Mendoza
and San Juan. The Barbera grape in Argentina keeps the high acidity like those in Piemonte, but gains a
much better harvest due to all of the sunshine. Austraila has begun to test
their luck with the Barbera grape and have produced a few attention-grabbing
wines.
Sources:
Drink This Now!
Kevin Zraly's
http://www.jancisrobinson.com/articles/barbera.html
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