Barbera d’Alba DOC Superiore Vintage 2016
Wine
Barbera is the wine that best represents the tough, headstrong, quietly dogged, strong but discrete character of the Piedmont winegrower.
This is the favourite of the farm labourer, and has traditionally been the common wine for everyday consumption.
This is a very ancient wine, and its name dates back to its origins before the middle Ages.
In classical Italian literature, it has been quoted in works by great poets like Giosuè Carducci and Giovanni Pascoli.
One of the most popular wines in Piedmont, in recent years Barbera has increased its reputation partly because of improvements in wine-growing techniques, and partly due to the evolution in vinification processes which have made it increasingly more successful.
Tasting Notes
Variety: 100% Barbera grapes
Colour: brilliant ruby that tends to become garnet with age
Scent in perfume: an intense fruity bouquet of prune and mulberry with a hint of spice
Flavour: full-bodied and enveloping, its slightly acid flavour does not upset the balance. Dry, fresh and fragrant, this wine lingers on the palate with traces of plum, blackberry and cherry .
Best served at: 16° C. – 60° F.
Food matches: a wine that can be served throughout the meal, very good with first course, grilled or baked red meat, and soft, medium-to-very mature cheese
Vinification: alcoholic fermentation in steel
Fining: malolactic fermentation and 6 months refining in Slavonia oak casks
Size / Format: 0,75 and 1,5 l
Ageing potential: up to 5 years after the harvest
Annuario dei migliori vini italiani 2025 — 94/100
Guide Annuario dei migliori vini italiani
Score 94/100
Publish Year 2025
Vintage 2021
Luca Maroni
Barbera d’Alba DOC Superiore 2021 Organic – 94/100
Annuario dei migliori vini italiani 2023 — 93/100
Guide Annuario dei migliori vini italiani
Score 93/100
Publish Year 2023
Vintage 2020
Barbera d’Alba DOC Superiore 2020 Organic: 93/100
Un frutto balsamico, glicerinoso e speziosamente splendente caratterizza la vivida Barbera d’Alba Superiore DOC 2020.
Annuario dei migliori vini italiani 2021 — 91/100
Guide Annuario dei migliori vini italiani
Score 91/100
Publish Year 2021
Vintage 2018
Barbera d’Alba DOC Superiore 2018 – 91/100
Di carnosa potenza, la visciola assai vivida e viola della Barbera d’Alba Doc Superiore 2018, morbida al palato e in aroma ben definita.
Vini Buoni d'Italia 2021 — 4 stars
Guide Vini Buoni d'Italia
Score 4 stars
Publish Year 2021
Vintage 2018
Barbera d’Alba DOC Superiore 2018 has obtained the best score of 4 stars and was inserted into the section VINI DA NON PERDERE in Vini Buoni d’Italia 2021 Guide for its pleasantness, correspondence between wine and grape variety and equilibrium.
Jancis Robinson 2020 — 16/20
Guide Jancis Robinson
Score 16/20
Publish Year 2020
Vintage 2018
Rating: 16/20
Sour cherry and cherry stone, dark cocoa powder and earthiness – like the smell and taste of a mushroom just picked off tree roots, still mossy, not cleaned, fresh, otherworldly.
But then there is the sharp, clean splice of Barbera fruit that brings us back from otherworldliness to a wine that will be delicious with a simple roasttomato chilli pasta.
ibrium.
Decanter World Wine Awards 2020 — Rating: 89/100 - Bronz Medal
Guide Decanter World Wine Awards
Score Rating: 89/100 - Bronz Medal
Publish Year 2020
Vintage 2018
Rating: 89/100 – Bronz Medal
Vine
Barbera is a red grape vine and can be considered Piedmont’s most typical vine.
Has very ancient origin and probably comes from the feudal lands of the Monferrato nobility.
Barbera is a very adaptable vine, capable of resisting in various types of soil and micro-climate and of responding with constantly high yields and a richly-coloured must.
All factors which made it very popular with ‘contadini’ farmers of the past.
Barbera grew in importance towards the end of the 19th century owing to its resistance to Phylloxera, the vine disease that had destroyed many vineyards.
It was soon the most widely-grown Piedmontese vine and Barbera wine was present on every countryman’s table.
In the past, Barbera was considered too ‘rustic’ to be fully commercial but with time this opinion has changed: with careful vinification some truly excellent wines have been produced with this grape, both for immediate consumption and for medium-term ageing with good preservation of their original characteristics.
Vineyard & Vintage Features
Barbera d’Alba DOC Superiore 2016
Vineyard
Production area: Comuni del Roero
Farming: traditional – guyot
Kg of grapes per hectare: no more than 100 quintals/hectar
Wine per hectare: around 7.000 liters
Chemical Analysis
Alcohol vol. (%): 14,56%
Residual sugar: 2,30 g/l
Total SO2: 89 mg/l
Free SO2: –
Total acidity: 5,42 g/l
