Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
trattoria-style, high-acid potable. Until then
nobody had thought it in the same class of Ital-
ian greats Barolo or Brunello. Some might
argue barbera still isn't considered by most
experts to be in that league, but there's no deny-
ing that it's hard to keep a good grape like Bar-
bera down: its chameleon-like properties rela-
tive to wine styles are a very endearing trait.
Barbera is characterized by medium-large,
pyramidal (rarely cylindrical) bunches and
medium-sized, oval, very dark blue berries cov-
ered in bloom. Barbera is the darkest of all the
major Piedmontese varieties: there's almost
twice as much malvin in Barbera skins as there
is in those of Nebbiolo (Gerbi, Rolle, Zeppa,
Guidoni, and Schneider 2005). One biotype,
Barbera Grossa, is, not surprisingly, character-
ized by much bigger berries, but also more
tightly packed bunches that make it more sus-
ceptible to botrytis. Due to its importance in
local economies and the large volumes of wine
made, Barbera has been the subject of much
clonal research. Today's most commonly used
clones are R4, Fedit 3 C.S.G., AL 115, Mi-B-12,
Mi-B-34, PC-Ba-9, PC-Ba-26, AT 84, CVT-ALL
115, CVT AT 171 (the last three clones are char-
acterized by slightly lower total acidity levels,
not a bad thing with Barbera), CVT AT 424,
BA-AL-128, BA-AL-132 (the latter two are from
the Alessandria province and are generally
characterized by higher average acidities and
slightly bigger bunches), 17-BA, CVT 83, VCR
19, VCR 101, VCR 433, VCR 207, VCR 223, CVT
OB66, and CVT CJ1. It is a very vigorous,
drought-resistant grape that ripens in late Sep-
tember or early October, but is susceptible to
spring frosts and is very sensitive to fanleaf
virus. It's highly productive and capable of very
large yields, so strict pruning to prevent over-
cropping is generally required for quality
wines.
Barbera is grown mainly in Piedmont, Lom-
bardy (in the Oltrepò Pavese near Pavia),
Emilia-Romagna (Colli Bolognesei, Piacentini,
and di Parma), and Sardinia, but nobody dis-
putes the notion that the best examples hail
from Piedmont. In this region it performs espe-
cially well near Alba, Asti, and near Alessan-
dria in the Monferrato. In the Asti area it has
basically replaced most of the other varieties.
Barbera is an adaptable variety and produces
copiously everywhere it is planted; better still,
wine quality is never horrid even at high yields,
though it too shows site-specifi city. For these
reasons, it's a favorite of farmers everywhere;
countless people have told me over the years
that they wished all their grapes were as easy to
work with. Sergio Germano of the Ettore Ger-
mano estate in Serralunga d'Alba in Piedmont
makes a very good point when he talks about
Barbera and
terroir:
“A site like Paiagallo, which
has a dark, rich, heavily organic clay is a much
better site for Barbera than Sarmassa, which
has more white calcareous-clay.” The lesson to
learn here is that the greater name is not always
the solution: Sarmassa is a much more famous
vineyard than Paiagallo, mainly because it has
always been associated with excellent Barolo
production; yet its soils, so good for Nebbiolo,
are not ideal for high-quality Barbera produc-
tion. Besides, in lighter soils, Barbera becomes
extremely sensitive to boron and potassium
defi ciencies, and its acidity tends to remain
high: the last thing barbera needs is even more
acidity.
Barbera has become less popular than in
previous times, with its total planted area
decreasing by roughly 25 percent in the fi rst
decade of the new century. Instead, it seems to
be doing very well in other countries. In the
United States, Barbera was fi rst planted in Cali-
fornia near Cupertino in the 1880s; today it
grows in Lodi, Napa, Paso Robles, Santa Bar-
bara, Santa Cruz, the Sierra foothills, and So-
noma, just to name a few AVAs. Barbera is also
found in Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas,
and Washington. Barbera vineyards have also
been established in Greece, Croatia, Romania,
Slovenia, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Argentina,
Uruguay, South Africa, and Australia (there are
almost one hundred different Australian win-
eries growing Barbera vines). This isn't a sur-
prising turn of events: though Barbera, a gener-
ous yielder, was fi rst planted in most of these
