Pelissero racconta: la Barbera

The article presents Barbera as Piemonte’s historically convivial red variety and reviews two proposed origins for its name: vinum barberis, associated with fermented wild berries, and barberus, suggesting an impetuous character. Ampelographic references appear from the sixteenth century; around 1600 Conte Francesco Cotti brought it to his Neive properties, and in 1798 Conte Nuvolone included it in Piemonte’s official list of native varieties.

Barbera combines deeply coloured skins and high acidity with comparatively modest tannin. Its medium, compact, winged bunches contain blue, bloom-covered berries with colourless, juicy pulp. The vine tolerates wind and drought but is vulnerable to severe frost and favours relatively infertile clay soils. At Pelissero it is expressed through the Piani and Tulin vineyards, whose contrasting soils provide different structural contexts for the variety.