Everything You Wanted To Know About Barbera Wine

Barbera is the Italian wine that goes best with an American weekend, as it’s perfect for a backyard barbecue. Luca Cinacchi, Food and Beverage Manager of the Café Trussardi at La Scala in Milan tells us why. “The first thing you need to know about the Barbera variety is that its grapes are absolute tyrants. This means that the wine it produces is astringent and dries the palate, so in the past the Piedmontese would drink it with salami and fatty meat. That’s why today it’s perfect with a pork barbecue.” Barbera grapes are described as “gray” because of the bloom on them and the variety has traditionally been overshadowed by the star of the Piedmont region, Nebbiolo, yet it has always been the most widely consumed wine. “It is important to avoid drinking overly aged Barbera because its high acidity means that it’s not very cellarable.

Choose a wine that is no more than three or four years old,” Cinacchi continues. The Barbera area extends from Alba to Asti, but the Barbera from the latter area is the most typical. The choice is between a Barbera produced by traditional wineries, which use only cement and steel vats, and more innovative winemakers, which age it in wooden barrels to tame its acidity. The right price for a good Barbera at an Italian wine shop is 12 euros, but you can also find it abroad, since the wine travels well.

There’s something else you need to know about Barbera. Cinacchi explains, “It is not a fizzy wine. In the United States and in many European countries, Lambrusco was all the rage in the Seventies, and millions of bottles of this bubbly were sold. It was so popular that Barbera also lent itself to being produced in a sparkling version, since it is so acidic. But true Barbera DOCG is not a sparkling wine.” Where can you enjoy a good Barbera in the United States? At Marc Vetri (www.vetrifamily.com), a Philadelphia trattoria with strong ties to Italian and Piedmont cuisine.