Barbera comes from the Piedmont region of Italy where it has taken a back seat to its big brother, Nebbiolo. It has traditionally been used as an everyday dinner wine, but not taken terribly seriously as a fine wine. That is, until recently when Italian winemakers started giving it some time in the sun, planting it to better locations and using better practices. The results are stand up wines of distinction with wonderful complexity of flavors. Barbera has had a long, but not necessarily glamorous, history in California, coming here as so many European varietals did in the the late 1800s. This was another favorite of the Italian immigrant community as a blending grape to give other varietals that had good tannin but needed more acid and color. It was grown in massive numbers in the central valley to make cheap dinner wines. Prohibition was particularly unkind to the Barbera grape and it didn't fully begin to recover until the last several years. In recent years it is being seen in increasing numbers as a fine wine in the warmer growing areas of California, such as the lower Sierra Nevada Foothills and Delta regions where it is being made into wonderfully structured wines with great fruit, nice acid, and some wonderful oak spice notes.

Flavor Profiles: This is a wine with great fruit in the nose and initial attack. Common fruit descriptors are figs, cherry, strawberry, blackcurrant and raspberry. But these wines should not be fruit bombs. They can exhibit wonderful highlights of licorice and some pretty significant chocolate. Usually aged in oak, it often has some great smokiness, toast, cooking spice and vanilla. The biggest claim to fame in the flavor profile is its vivaciousness from its higher acid, making this a bright and vibrant wine.

Wine Pairing Considerations: The nice acidity of Barbera makes it a wonderfully food friendly wine. It is exceptionally good with any food that contains tomatoes as a base or sauce. That same acidity makes it a great choice for fatty or creamy foods, cleaning the fat off the palate to allow the flavors of the foods to come through. If any wine could be called a pizza food, this would be it. It is a natural for the patty cheeses and meats as well as the higher acidity found in the tomato sauces pizza is known for. But this is also a great wine with light meat dishes, such as chicken and proscuitto. One classic pairing is with a creamy risotto. Its acidity also works well with hard cheese, such as parmesan and cheddar.