Barbera

Barbera is the everyday red of Piedmont and the one the region actually drinks. It is planted far more widely than Nebbiolo and occupies a very different place in local life: where Nebbiolo is for occasions and for cellaring, Barbera is for Tuesday.

Its defining combination is very high acidity with very low tannin — unusual, and the reverse of Nebbiolo. That gives a wine which is deeply coloured and fresh rather than grippy, with sour cherry, blackberry, plum and a note of liquorice and dried herbs. Alcohol is generous and the wine is immediately drinkable.

The low tannin was historically a problem for ageing, and the solution found in the 1980s was oak. Barrel-aged Barbera, pioneered by Giacomo Bologna with Bricco dell'Uccellone, added tannin and structure from the wood and demonstrated the grape could make serious wine. It also split the region, and both styles are now made: the fresh, unoaked, high-acid traditional version and the denser barrique-aged one.

Barbera d'Asti and Barbera d'Alba are the main appellations, with Asti generally considered the grape's true home — in Alba the best sites go to Nebbiolo.

It was also the grape most damaged by the 1986 methanol scandal, in which adulterated bulk wine killed more than twenty people. The collapse in the region's reputation prompted a wholesale shift towards quality that transformed Piedmont over the following decade.

It is widely planted in Argentina and California, largely by Italian immigrant families.

Its very low tannin has a practical consequence: Barbera is one of the few serious reds that does not need decanting or age to be enjoyable, and it is at its best within five years of the vintage for the unoaked styles.

The acidity is high enough to be a technical problem in cooler vintages, and it is the reason Barbera is planted on warmer, lower sites in Piedmont while Nebbiolo takes the best slopes. Malolactic fermentation is essential rather than optional, converting the sharp malic acid into softer lactic and rounding the wine considerably.

It is planted widely in Argentina and California, in both cases by Italian immigrant families who brought it with them, and the old plantings in Mendoza and the Sierra Foothills produce wines of real character that are almost never exported.

The pairing logic is straightforward: high acid and low tannin make it one of the best wines in existence for tomato sauce, which defeats tannic reds entirely.