Wine Blogging Wednesday #54: A passion for Piedmont

Welcome to Wine Blogging Wednesday #54: A passion for Piedmont whose host is David McDuff of McDuff’s Food & Wine Trail. Well of course I am totally stoked as Piedmont or Piemonte is one of my favorite wine regions to sip wines from as well as one of my favorites to visit. The rules for this WBW were simple, just pick any wine from the Piedmont region of Italy, sip it and write about it! It can be one of the powerful Nebbiolo based varietals such as Barolo or Barberesco or it can be the aromatic Arneis. I chose to write about Barbera, the work horse grape of the region that along with it’s little brother Dolcetto, find themselves on dinner tables in the region more often than not. The wine itself was the 2005 Marco Porello Barbera d’ Alba Filatura ($17). From the Filatura vineyard in the village of Canale comes this Barbera that is comprised of 100% of the grape. Unlike Barberesco and Barolo that are from the same grape and named for their respective regions, Barbera and Dolcetto are named for the grapes themselves.

From the winemaker:

“The vineyards are from 30 to 50 years old. The south-west sun exposure of the vineyard, the medium mixture soil with a good percentage of clay allow a very good ripening of bunches. The grape harvest takes place normally at the beginning of October. The wine making processes used are the following: grapes destemming and crushing, fermentation at controlled temperature for 10/12 days and racking off. The wine is afterwards poured into wooden barrels where it finishes its alcoholic and malolactic fermentation. The wine is improved in barriques (with a good relation new/used ones according to the characteristics of the year) for 12/14 months. The production is of around 6,000 bottles. After the bottling the wine rests for some months before being commercialized.”

I always enjoy Barbera, because you get a little more oomph than a Dolcetto but don’t spend that much more money, although Barbera’s can get up in the $30-$40 range. One in particular that I wrote about a few months ago was in that price range but drank more like a Barolo than a Barbera so the price was warranted.

My Tasting Notes –

Nose – cherry, raspberry, rhubarb

Taste – cherry, red currant, vanilla, dry dusty earth

Mouthfeel – medium body, fairly “full” feeling for a Barbera with good acidic back end

Finish – medium length, dusty to velvety tannins

This was a pretty good Barbera d’ Alba, nothing screamingly exciting about it but it was varietally correct displaying the classic aroma and taste profiles. At the $17 price tag it is definitely a buy and would go great with classic northern Italian or Mediterranean cuisine or would even be a nice splurge for a pizza night.

Thanks again to David for hosting this months WBW! Cheers!