Nascetta- The Other White Grape



The Barbera 7 did in fact get to venture outside the world of all things barbera. We had the pleasure of visiting Valter Fissore at  Elvio Cogno in Novello right next to the town of Barolo. After the obligatory cellar tour, which can be more or less humdrum depending on the producer, we settled into our seats in the tasting room. Cogno produces some solid Barolo and a classic Dolcetto (and a barbera without the oak overdose.) But, we didn’t know we would be in for a little close encounter of the white kind.

age worthy

There is a Piemontese grape called Nascetta, which I tried for the first time just a few days prior to this tasting at Cogno. Valter told us that they were the first producer to ever bottle the nascetta back in 1994 and single handedly fought for that little engine of a grape that could to rise from vino di tavola (table wine) status to a Langhe Bianco DOC. It will soon bear its own Nascetta label. We tasted the most recent vintage as he spoke of how nascetta is an age-worthy wine and can stand up to 10 years in the bottle. He had just completed a vertical tasting of all their nascetta wines going back to the late nineties. With our eyebrows raised, he sensed a challenge. Did we want to try the 2001 Nascetta he had in the cellar? Um, yes please.

nascetta closeup

Valter returned to the table with a single bottle in hand. He informed us that it was the last bottle. The last bottle. Ever. A crazy concept for me to wrap my head around although I know that the last bottle of something is being opened somewhere every day. It’s just rare that I am the one enjoying its opening. There may be someone out there in Italy that purchased a bottle back in 2001 and decided for whatever reason to hold on to it, but I seriously doubt it. The wine was a rich golden color and slightly saline and savory in the mouth. It reminded me of vitovska(!) and vermentino (of which it is thought to be genetically linked.) Cory brought up the fact that this wine could be done in an oxidative style much like a Friulian vitovska and I completely agree.

What a treat! Thanks Valter for cracking open the bottle for the sole purpose of geeking out. Our eyebrows are no longer resting in their upright position.

How Much Wood Should A Barbera Have If A Barbera Should Have Wood


Or more aptly titled, How Many Bloggers Does It Take to Write About How Much They Dislike Excessive Oak in Barbera Until the Winemakers Stop Doing It. But firstly, we’ve made the news! The bloggers are the talk of the town. Fredric Koeppel (Bigger Than Your Head) reads the fine print as Michele Chiarlo begins his discussion of vine training methods.

read all about it

We spent the day focused on the Nizza subzone of Asti. A small group of Asti winemakers (including Chiarlo) have spent heaps of dollar bills to test barbera’s vine training methods in hopes to further analyze the varietal’s acidity, tannin and color (and “improve” the wine). Which brings me to the main theme of the day…

tonal

on the left: guyot method. lighter more delicate color. on the right: the new cordon method and a darker more saturated color

What is in need of improvement exactly?  Beyond the need to pump up the color for aging (?) and reduce the amount of work in the vineyard, these experiments and changes made in the vine training open a larger discussion of the vinification of the barbera as well.  This is the when the day started to get interesting… after 2 full days of tasting Barbera d’Asti, most of us (journalists, buyers from all over the world)  were eager to start asking questions about the giant oaky elephant that’s been in the tasting room all week.

lunch vertical

The oak of the wine had become the star of the show up until that point. What happened to the barbera? And more importantly, what should barbera actually be? It’s subjective, as wine always is. But the general consensus of my fellow tasters is that barbera should be what it always was, what it is at its purest form: a light, racy, high acidity, fruit driven wine.

snow fall

as snow begins to fall in Nizza, we loaded in to another blind tasting

nizza

We moved locations to taste a slew of more Barberas from Nizza. This left us bewildered once again. The oak! Luckily, about 20 producers of the wines we had just tried were in attendance. What I will call the Nizza Oak Debate of 2010 began. For the sake of brevity as well as my lack of time I will list the main points discussed/argued and the resulting thoughts that dialogue left floating in my brain…

– The apparent need to create a universally more appealing style of wine specifically in hopes to sell more bottles to consumers.

– The American market (and all markets for that matter) and its supposed stylistic preference (big, fat Cali wines- is that what Italians think we only like?)

-Making barbera to taste like itself or just like every other non distinctive wine

-What makes a “good” wine? In the words of Michele Chiarlo, “A good wine is a wine that sells.”

-The manipulation of wine. How/if it should be altered to be something other than the true expression of the grape.

-The concept of creating a Superbarbera. Just typing that out makes me roll my eyes.

-Does a more “elegant” wine always mean less oak?

heated

The debates remained heated as the temperatures outside continued to drop and the snow continued to fall. The producers defended themselves and we were left hoping to find a redeeming wine at our dinner table. Which we did in Andrea Faccio’s Villa Giada unoaked fresh 2009 Barbera D’Asti. As if sent from the wine gods above telling us to hold on for one more day.

snow

prints

Much more to write about- yesterday was filled with Barbera wines of Monferrato, a seriously awesome cellar tour and of course more eating and drinking. It was the day the Barbera 7 Got Their Groove Back. Stay tuned…

On The Road with the Barbera Boys (& Gal)



Day 1. After 60 plus barbera wines under our belt, we hit the road for a mini tour of Asti wine country.

wheels on the bus

The guys doing what they do best. Jeremy- talking, Fredric- being a stone cold motha, Thor- smirking and Jon- looking like a Tom Ford model. First stop- a tasting of barbera senza solfiti (without sulfites) at Azienda Paolo Marcarino.

glasses

saignee

vino

We tried a barbera that was blended with 20% dried grapes…a bit reductive and amarone like, otherwise known as bit “too much wine” via Cory. Also tasted was an extremely gulpable cortese (aka “grandpa wine” as says Jeremy) straight from the tank. Lovely little amaretti cookies were served with our final wine, a moscato d’asti, the region’s golden child.

amaretti

the sauce

Thor and the barbera soaked mouth of Mr. Stuart George.

dilap

barrel

As our little bus worked its way up the hills, blankets of snow crept onto the vineyard slopes. We reached the cellar  at Il Falchetto for more barbera. And more moscato. A surprise hit was their “Lurei” 2007 Barbera D’Asti which that morning wasn’t as well received in the blind tasting for whatever reason. The mysteries of the palate and the bottle…

snow vines

cork

barbera

snow

As evening approached, it was time to hit the road again. We had another 37 producers to work through- before dinner.

open

menu

Bread was broken and wine was shared with the winemakers spread throughout the dining room and around our tables. After dinner, the boys hit the town for an ice cold beer- a welcome change of pace for their wine drenched palates. This gal decided to call it a day and hit the hay. Today- another full day of barbera. Giddy up!