I love Piedmont and am actually a more of a Barbaresco than an Barolo kind of guy. But I never got Barbera. At all. It seemed to me fruit forward, one dimensional and boring. I think I finally get it.
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What turned you? I’m not a huge fan, but I bought a few vietti scarrone and crena at auction (each with about 10 years of age on them) and they’re up there on the list of my most enjoyable wines. Fruity, layered, rich but complex.
The right one can be pretty tasty and enjoyable. I’ve gone through a few 2010 Sandrone.
Not to go off-topic immediately, but I am actually more curious about Jim’s comment that he prefers Barbaresco to Barolo?
Why? Same grape, and at least IMO there are way more credible producers of Barolo, so I’d like to hear what it is about Barbaresco that has him leaning that way?
Okay, I’m not sure what your epiphany was but I’ll bite. To me, Barbara is all about acid rather than tannin, and the good ones have firm acid (too firm for some) to balance the fruit. And yeah, the ones that can reasonably be described as fruit forward are mostly one dimensional and boring. I’ve always loved Barbera for practical reasons, if nothing else. Good Barolo and Barbaresco are out of my price range except on the rarest of occasions. Barbera gives me regular opportunities to taste wines from the great nebbiolo producers at my everyday price.
And I think one of the problems people have with Barbera is that up until the last decade or so, very few producers really took it seriously enough, so you were as likely to find a so-so version as you were a decent one.
I think that is changing, in part because producers like Vietti and Roberto Conterno have focused on upgrading their offerings.
Welcome to the party pal.
I love Italian wines but have never got Barbera.
As I understand it, Asti gives its best vineyards to Barbera. In Other areas, it’s relegated to lesser plots of land
You haven’t posted in a year, but you broke your silence to say you “get” Barbera, with zero explanation of what you get and why you get it?
Hmm. I feel like I get Barbera, but what there is to get is mostly just solid, fairly simple red at a reasonable price. Which is fine, and I know there are probably a few exceptions that deserve higher praise than that, but overall, I don’t see much profound about it.
Same here. Keep trying but can never warm to them. They always taste unbalanced to me.
Barbera is one of the most food friendly wines you will find. It plays a nice part in the landscape of Piedmont.
That’s usually what is said about Dolcetto di Dogliani, where the wines tend to be fuller bodied than Dolcetto d’Alba.
I think with barbera, that’s not really the explanation. The soils are different in the Asti area, the altitude is lower and the topography is different, and the wines tend to be lighter in color, fruit profile and weight. Often it’s a better outcome for the grape, but it’s not because barbera is somehow cheated of its due in the Alba zone. The best Barbera d’Albas, like Vietti’s Scarrone and Giacomo Conterno’s Cascina Francia, are just different beasts than an Asti barbera.
It was a Vietti, a producer I greatly admire when we’re talking about Nebbiolo. It was not one dimensional, which is what every other Barbera I’ve ever had was. It wasn’t like a flat Zinfandel, which is what every other Barbera I’ve ever had was. It had restraint and complexity.
To me, the difference between Barolo and Barbaresco is analogous to the difference between Corton and Volnay. Does that help? I just prefer Barbaresco in the hands of a B. Mascarello, G. Conterno, Vietti, Bruno Giacosa.
Does Roberto Conterno even make a Barbaresco? If so, I should like to try one, as I’d be curious to see what he would do there.
I guess I could understand a preference for Giacosa’s wines from Asili or Rabaja, but folks like Conterno and Mascarello are far more known for their Baroli. No real right or wrong here, I guess, but you are certainly in a minority position with a preference for Barbaresco over Barolo, Jim.
Yeah, I was curious and just checked Ken V’s website - Giacomo Conterno hasn’t released a Barbaresco since the '71 vintage - if that’s the kind of shtuff you’re drinking, I am envious ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
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And also according to Ken, Bartolo hasn’t done one since '69.
You are going to have to look long and hard to find Barbaresco from B. Mascarello and G. Conterno. Even the Masseria from Vietti is not that easy to find. Vietti makes a nice range of Barbera.
Well, that’s too broad a brush to paint the Langhe, given the variety of terroirs, vineyards, producers. There are very powerful and structured Barbareschi and elegant Baroli, and vice versa of course. And as others have said, the names you mentioned are not very representative of Barbaresco, with the exception of Bruno Giacosa.