Barbera d’Alba DOC Superiore Vintage 2018

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 4 months refining in Slavonia oak casks

Size / Format: 0,75 and 1,5 l

Ageing potential: up to 5 years after the harvest

Reviews

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.

Download PDF

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

Bright cherry and slightly herbal nose. On the palate the wine is intense and layered with ripe red fruits and firm tannin.

Download PDF

Annuario dei migliori vini italiani 2020 91/100

Guide Annuario dei migliori vini italiani

Score 91/100

Publish Year 2020

Vintage 2017

Il miglior vino: Barbera d’Alba DOC Superiore 2017 – 91/100

Sensazioni: per esser sì carnosamente evocata, la prugna matura, l’estratto del vino, l’equilibrio e l’integrità del suo aroma, di tenore e volume evidentemente di eccezionale portata.

In particolare la consistenza è spettacolo sensibilmente impressivo: una tinta che non consente trasparenza alcuna, un timbro di viola su nero che annuncia il fresco sul foco del suo poderoso distillato di mora.

Un vino che al tatto, al palpeggio rivela drappeggio. Un vino il cui gusto sì tannicamente apre, così come intensamente morbido, equilibrato richiude.

Un grande vino di persistenza lunghissima, un fuoriclasse in materia prima che brilla ancor oggi, nitido e maestoso per le sue enologiche doti.

 

 

Download PDF

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 2018

Vineyard

Production area: Comuni del Roero

Farming: traditional – guyot

Kg of grapes per hectare: no more than 100 quintals/hectar

Max wine liters per hectare: around 7.000 liters

Chemical Analysis

Alcohol vol. (%): 14 %

Residual sugar: < 4 g/l

Total SO2: < 100 mg/l

Total acidity: 5,9 g/l