WINO 101

Hello Friends and Wine Lovers!

Welcome to another edition of the Super-Special, Often-Informative, and Occasionally-Amusing Carpe Vinum Weekly Newsletter and Tasting Announcement! This week we have extra hyphens (-) and we’re having another tasting dedicated to the wine geek in all of us: It’s the Barbera grape! More specifically, it’s 7 different wines made from the Barbera grape! What the heck is a Barbera? I’m glad you asked! Read on!

Barbera is a grape. It’s not to be confused with Barbara, which is a different name. . . as in Barbara Streisand. Who, like Barbera the grape, has a prolific nose, is medium-bodied, and makes a memorable whine! Ha! (Sorry. . .) Okay, kidding aside. . .Barbera is an Italian varietal from the Piedmont (region of NW Italy) where it’s one of two dominant black-grape varietals, right alongside Nebbiolo, the grape famous for the legendary red: Barolo. Barbera is notable in the appropriately named Barbera d’Asti and Barbera d’Alba, but not, as you might expect, in the Barbaresco. That’s actually a Nebbiolo wine.

Barbera in the New World, for the most part, is a fairly new thing (Besides Seghesio, where it was planted in the late 1800s). Many producers in Washington are starting to experiment with Italian varietals: Barbera, Sangiovese, Nebbiolo, Dolcetto and others. I got turned on to the New World Barberas by trying the Mystic Barbera last year (Oregon winery, Washington fruit). It was one of my favorite wines of the entire year.

So I scoured the market to find some other fine examples of this Italian varietal. It turned up at a few Washington wineries, quite a few California wineries, and as you might expect, thousands upon thousands of Italian wineries. But as there are only 7 slots in the tasting available, we’re going for the cross-section. Two Washington, two California, and three from the Italian portfolio: Barbera d’Asti, Barbera d’Alba, and Barbera Monleale.

It’ll be good one or my name isn’t Barbara!

Uh. . .no, wait. It’ll be good AND my name isn’t Barbara!

So Friday, March 17th, between 4:30 and 9:00 PM it’s:

Barberic Barbera!!
Il Cuore 2003 Barbera, Mendocino County, California
Columbia Winery 2002 Barbera, Alder Ridge Vineyard, Columbia Valley, Washington
Cascina Castlet 2003 “Litina” Barbera d’Asti. Piedmont, Italy
Baroli 2004 Barbera d’Alba, Piedmont, Italy
Vigneti Massa 2002 Barbera Monreale, Piedmont, Italy

By Any Other Name: Babs?
Seghesio 2003 Barbera, Sonoma County, California
Cascade Cliffs 2002 Estate Barbera, Columbia Valley, Washington

Next Friday tasting Oregon Wines!