From: Piedmont, Italy
Varietal: Barbera
Taste and Critical Acclaim: Beguiling aromas of dark cherry, currant, slate, hints of spice, and a lavender floral lift. You’ll find more layers of fruit, floral, licorice, cocoa, and spice notes on the wine’s medium-bodied palate and clean, bright finish. A gorgeously balanced Barbera!
“The 2022 Barbera d'Alba is deep, layered and expressive in the mid-weight style that runs through all the wines here. Succulent dark cherry, plum, mocha, spice and new leather are nicely pushed forward. The 2022 is aged entirely in cask, with one new cask in the mix that adds just a very subtle touch of new wood character.” —Antonio Galloni, Vinous, 90 points
Pairing: “This is “the” young red for Piedmontese cuisine, a region to which it seems to naturally belong. Its zeal, in fact, has no frills or trappings: it referees the game of the meal with the purest spirit of service, staying on the sidelines as much as possible. In the end, however, we recall Barbera thankfully, as at the table it promotes honest well-being.” —Burlotto
This quote touches on the amazing versatility of Barbera at the table. This wine will taste great with a long list of delicious dishes: eggplant parmigiana, pizza, tomato-based sauces, roast white meats, pork chops, braised dishes, duck, goose, and game birds. The acidity will balance fatty foods like pure, creamy cheeses and richer pasta dishes; just don’t overwhelm its delicate nuances with overly spicy dishes or extremely creamy sauces. Today, it has us craving a summery grilled steak recipe like the one below.
Grilled Strip Steak with Blistered Tomatoes and Green Beans
By Andy Baraghani
About. Burlotto is the flagship producer from Barolo’s Verduno area. This is a property of enormous historic importance, fabulously delicious wines, and outstanding value.
The Commendatore Giovan Battista Burlotto, one of Barolo's great characters, founded the estate back in 1850. The labels still commemorate the royal house of Savoy’s fondness for Burlotto wines, as well as the winery’s exclusive presence on Duke Luigi Amedeo's 1899 North Pole expedition. The Duke lost two fingers to frostbite, but wrote to the Commendatore a year and a half into the trip that “[t]he wine has been conserved in perfect condition.” G.B. Burlotto was also a pioneer of selling wine in bottle (rather than in cask or demijohn), as well as a champion of a now-rare but still-ravishing grape, Pelaverga Piccolo.
Five generations later, G.B.’s great-great-grandson, Fabio Alessandria, has changed little at the winery, doing some of the crush by foot, fermenting the wine in upright wooden vats, using indigenous yeast and little temperature control.
We love Burlotto wines for their history, but even more for their diversity, their pure fruit, delicate structure, and signature Verduno floral aromatics and spicy palate. The family's single-vineyard Barolos, especially the culty Monvigliero, are some of Piedmont's most lauded wines, critical and collector favorites year-in and year-out. But they continue to make extraordinary wines for Piedmont's more humble grapes (including Dolcetto, Barbera, Preisa, and of course Pelaverga), wines that don't attempt to turn those grapes into Nebbiolo blockbusters but rather that show their unique charms and terroir transparency. The sheer drinkability of these "lesser" wines is is tremendous, and the pricing for such special bottles from such top-rank grower, is shockingly accessible.
About this wine.
Sourced from 1.7 hectares of Barbera planted in the Cadìa vineyard parcel, located in a historic area called Cadìa, along the road that travels from Verduno to the municipality of Roddi, in whose territory the vineyard is located. It is a hill whose innate quality has been known for centuries. Here the Barbera grows alongside Pelaverga (0.32 ha), Dolcetto (0.41 ha) and Freisa (0.52 ha). The vineyards are located between 250-280 meters above sea level. The area, wonderfully panoramic, has the same geological texture as the great Barolo vineyards of the “Tortonian” section – municipalities of Verduno, Barolo, La Morra, Cherasco and Novello, and part of Monforte d’Alba – and the expression we capture in our wines is the spontaneous aptitude for softness and tannic delicacy, emphasized by the bright exposure to the south.
The harvest is carried out by hand, in order to preserve the integrity of the fruit and to allow for, when necessary, a selection of the grapes which are then transported to the cellar in 20 kg boxes. The bunches are de-stemmed and the must moved by gravity into both open French oak vats and open top stainless steel vessels, where alcoholic fermentation takes place. During the maceration, delicate pumping over and punching down are carried out daily.
Malolactic fermentation takes place in stainless steel tanks with additional aging in large French oak barrels. Bottling is usually carried out in the period between the end of August and the beginning of September of the year following the harvest.
