Barbera is a difficult grape to consolidate into a single stylistic character. It varies from traditional bright and fruit driven high acid styles to richer, darker, more brooding oak aged styles. A recent series of articles by Cory Cartwright of the fantastic Saignee blog saw Cory tasting through a ton of oak aged barberas in Piedmont much to his disliking. In fact, the oak aged style of barbera has come to be quite controversial, with traditionalists believing that barbera’s true character becomes overwhelmed when it is aged in oak.

And, of course, Oak is only one of the factors to consider with Barbera. There is also the site in which it is grown, with Alba providing more of the high quality single vineyard sites than Asti, both in Piedmont. Barbera’s versatility and vigor also makes it possible to plant all over northern Italy, so it is not that challenging to find examples from some of the less famed regions such as Rubino or Gabiano.

Not having had the opportunity to taste through as many of the oaked wines as Cory did on his trip, I have to admit that this particular wine from famed producer Vietti (which was aged in oak) impressed me and piqued my interest in the possibilities of barbera in oak. Perhaps the Vietti example is one of the few that does well with oak, but I found several elements quite enjoyable about this wine.

First off, Vietti managed to maintain some of the classic barbera aromas of black cherry – but this wine also added felt tip marker, a brooding figgy quality and other dark fruits. If barbera could ever approximate nebbiolo, then this would be the wine that does it, being the densest barbera I’ve ever tasted.

The palate offered more cherry, but also chocolate, fig, plum, along with smoke, tobacco, and tea (likely brought to the scene by the oak). The massive structure and dense and as yet undelineated mid-palate makes me think this wine needs another 3-5 years. The big question is, how will it resolve in that time?

If you are curious to see the good things that oak can do to barbera, or at least one of the better examples of the style, you could do a lot worse than the Vietti Scarrone.

Excellent
$60 at Kitsilano Wine Cellars and Marquis [I got mine at Esquin in Seattle]

I decided recently to skip over a bunch of my older tasting notes and start writing about wines I was actually drinking around the time of posting. I find it much more enjoyable to write up a wine in proximity to its consumption. However, today marks an opportunity to get through at least a couple older tasting notes (I have notes for around 40 wines sitting around!).

For this wine, however, I don’t really need a note – I remember it clearly. Prunotto has been a favourite of mine since I had a large sampling of their range at the Vancouver International Wine Festival. I had heard good things about their Barbera, but didn’t chance upon it until the new massive Everything Wine warehouse opened up in North vancouver. I am glad I got my hands on this.

A nose of roasted meat, smoky bbq, and very rich raspberry. The palate was smoky still, but in a more subtle way, with tar, cigar, and a core of luscious raspberry again. But this is a style of raspberry fruit that you could only get from Italy – raw and forward and built to pair with food. With an elegant mouthfeel, a proper structure and excellent balance, this, to my mind, is as close to perfect as Barbera gets. Prunotto does it again.

Excellent+
$60 at Everything Wine