Barbera

Barbera is grown in Piedmont, northern Italy. Though it lives in the shadow of it's more famous brother, Nebbiolo, Barbera is well worth seeking out, providing better-than-average, highly food friendly wines that rarely disappoint.

The last 15 years or so have seen some producers taking this varietal more serioulsy, planting it in better sites, cutting back on fruit yields and using fine oak barrels to age it resulting in some first-rate reds.

Description:

Smoky plum fruit with grippy tannins, fresh, yet ripe and satisfying.

Food to enjoy with:

Dishes with a lot of weight; beef or rabbit braised in wine with field mushrooms, or pasta with an amatriciana sauce.

Below is more information sourced from the South Australia Library:

Synonyms
None, although the variety is often qualified by the addition of the name of the region, as in Barbera d'Alba, Barbera d'Asti, Barbera del Monferrato etc. There are several variations in the clones.
History

Barbera is the most widely grown red wine grape of Italy, and the variety was known to exist in the thirteenth century. It is believed to have originated in Piedmont near Monferrato and then spread through the rest of Italy. In Australia it has been grown since clones were imported from the University of California, Davis, in the 1960s.

Geographical distribution
Barbera is to be found mostly in Italy especially in the region of Piedmont though it is also to be found in Central and Southern Italy. There are significant plantings in California especially in the Central and Napa Valleys and it is also to be found in Argentina, Brazil, Dalmatia and Uruaguay. There are only small plantings as yet in Australia, though it has been grown for approximately 25 years in the Mudgee region of New South Wales, with later plantings in the King Valley and the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria.

Characteristics
Vine
The vine is fairly vigorous and high yielding particularly if grown in a warm to hot environment with suitable soils, but it is susceptible to several diseases. The leaves are medium in size, flat, 5-lobed with a hairy lower surface.

Fruit
The bunches are of small to medium size and usually conical, winged and compact. The berries are of medium size, black, oval in shape and bear a heavy bloom. They are late ripening and generally have soft skins.

Wine
The juice has a good colour, high levels of acid and tannin, with a fruity, floral nose and a distinctive varietal palate. While the wine produced is usually drunk early it will also age well. Barbera is used in Italy to make dry red wines and also sweet red and sparkling red wines.. There are only two DOCs for varietal Barbera and it is more usually blended with a varying percentage of other red varieties because of Barbera's somewhat neutral palate. Similar methods of wine making are used in all the regions in which it is cultivated and therefore the same variety of styles is presented, but it is generally most valuable as a blending wine.