Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Barbera is one of Italy's fi ve most-planted
native grapes, and the third most-common red
grape, found in almost every region of the
country. It is also one of the fi fteen most-
planted grape varieties in the world. The origin
of its name is unclear: Pietro Ratti of Renato
Ratti feels it's a derivation of
barbaro
(barbar-
ian) due to its deep red color, while others
believe the origin is
vinum berberis,
an astrin-
gent, acidic, and deeply hued medieval drink.
Vinum berberis
is different from the
vitibus ber-
bexinis
referred to in a 1249 document located
in the archives of Casale Monferrato, which was
most likely another variety, Barbesino or Berbe-
sino, better known today as Grignolino.
For all its abundance and the loyalty it
breeds (the people of Piedmont and Lombardy
grow up in barbera's company: drinking it char-
acterizes a Milanese almost as much as the
Duomo, via Montenapoleone, and
risotto alla
Milanese
), the grape variety does not have a
long and distinguished history. Most Italian
experts believe it to be original not of Asti or
Alba, but of the Monferrato area of Piedmont,
near Alessandria, where documents mention
its presence in the seventeenth century; lumi-
naries such as Gallesio called it
Vitis vinifera
montisferratensis
(though that name could refer
to any number of local grapes). Others feel the
grape was known centuries before, as Uva
Grisa or Grisola (de' Crescenzi 1495), and was
the result of the domestication of local wild
vines. However, given Barbera's very dark ber-
ries and wine, I fi nd it hard to understand why
it would have been called
grisa,
as that refers to
a reddish-grey color. At the end of the eigh-
teenth century, Conte Nuvolone Pergamo men-
tions Barbera under that name, citing the
grapevine grown in Asti as identical to the
Ughetta of Vercelli and the Vespolina of Novara
(though we know that the latter is a completely
different variety).
Though Barbera is viewed as an archetypal
Piedmontese variety, the lack of historical
information on Barbera's presence in the region
prior to the eighteenth century makes it hard to
believe the grape has always resided there, or
that it really derives from domesticated wild
vines growing in Piedmont. In fact, DNA pro-
fi ling (Schneider, Boccacci, and Botta 2003)
has shown that Barbera does not share close
genetic ties to any other Piedmontese cultivar,
which would be highly unlikely had Barbera
truly been on Piedmontese soil for millennia.
Barbera is also unrelated to another, similarly
named Piedmontese native, Barbera d'Davi: the
two have in common only oval berries. Also
distinct are the very rare, similarly named Pied-
montese cultivars Barbera Ciarìa, Barbrassa,
and Barbera Dou Ciorniou. According to
Schneider and Mannini (2006), Barbera also
appears, tentatively, to be distinct from the local
Barberùn
family of grapes, while it is certainly
distinct from Barbera del Sannio and the white-
berried Barbera Bianca (Sefc, Lopes, Lefort,
Botta, Roubelakis-Angelakis, Ibanez, et al.
2000; Costantini, Monaco, Vouillamoz, For-
lani, and Grando 2005). The latter is neither a
mutation nor an albino variant of Barbera. Most
likely, it was so named because it is also high in
acid (for added fun, Barbera Bianca is also
called Carica L'asino, though that's a quite dis-
tinct variety).
Barbera has been witness to some of the
most important moments in Italy's wine his-
tory, good, bad, and ugly. Among the bad was
the methanol scandal of 1986, when a number
of lesser names were caught fraudulently add-
ing methanol to their fi nished barbera wines in
an effort to add richness and strength—and
save costs. It was a tragically criminal idea, for
a number of people died in the process (metha-
nol is highly toxic, and can cause blindness and
death); the only positive spin-off was the back-
lash, which forcibly improved Italy's wine
scene, resulting in stricter attention to quality
control at all levels. Among the good was the
birth of Barbera Bricco dell'Uccellone, made by
Giacomo Bologna (one of Italy's great names in
wine) in the late 1970s; Bologna was the fi rst to
age high-quality barbera in new oak
barriques.
Thanks to him and his insight, everyone fi nally
realized that barbera could be rich, complex,
and ageworthy, and not just a joyous everyday
