Piedmont’s everyday red is finally being taken seriously. At Antica Casa Vinicola Scarpa, which has been laying Barbera down since 1900, the argument was settled fifty years ago.
Barbera is having the decade Nebbiolo had a century ago. On June 22 this year, Italy’s agriculture ministry formally recognized the Consorzio del Nizza DOCG, giving the Barbera appellation its own protection body for the first time; until then its interests had been looked after by the larger Consorzio Barbera d’Asti e Vini del Monferrato. The producers’ association behind the change had been making the case since 2002. Nizza now runs its own affairs: 97 member producers, more than 180 labels, around a million bottles a year and a denomination worth roughly €30 million. In 2016, about 35 wineries made it.
Categories do not do that when they are still somebody’s everyday red.
None of it surprises Antica Casa Vinicola Scarpa, which has been ageing the evidence since 1900.
“Barbera is the purest expression of Scarpa’s identity,” says Davide Champion, chief executive of the house, owned since 2017 by the Monaco-based entrepreneur Evgeny Strzhalkovsky. “It has energy, depth and incredible ageing potential.”
He can afford the confidence. Scarpa has been making its flagship Barbera, La Bogliona, since 1974, and it keeps the run of it downstairs in the Caveau, the cellar archive of historic vintages beneath the house in Nizza Monferrato.
What is Barbera Wine?
Barbera is the most planted red grape in Piedmont and the flagship of Antica Casa Vinicola Scarpa: dark-fruited, high in acidity, low in tannin, and drinkable young with almost anything you put in front of it. That ease is exactly what kept it off the top table. For most of a century, it was the carafe wine, while Nebbiolo, the grape of Barolo and Barbaresco, collected the named vineyards and the top-shelf prices.
Does Barbera Age Well?
Yes, but only on the terms any serious red demands: a good site, low yields, and patience in the cellar. Grown that way, Barbera’s trademark acidity stops being refreshment and becomes structure, doing the job tannin does in Nebbiolo. It is why a well-sited Barbera can hold twenty years and a carafe Barbera cannot hold two.
“We do not argue that Barbera ages,” Champion says. “We keep the evidence in the cellar, and then we pour it.”
Why is Barbera Underrated?
The answer is history, not the grape. Barbera crops generously, and post-war Piedmont planted it for volume, so its reputation followed its yields. The rehabilitation came when growers began treating it the way they treat Nebbiolo: single sites, lower yields, longer ageing. I
t was formalized in 2014, when Nizza became a denomination in its own right, the only Barbera appellation to carry a place name on the label instead of the grape, the way Barolo and Barbaresco do. Scarpa needed no such reappraisal. Through the volume years in Monferrato, it continued fermenting on indigenous yeasts, ageing in botti, and declining to overproduction.
What is Scarpa’s La Bogliona?
La Bogliona is Scarpa’s single-vineyard Barbera and the top wine of the house. It comes from Poderi Bricchi, an unbroken block of more than 25 hectares on the highest point of the hill between Castel Rocchero and Acqui Terme, which the house acquired in 1969; it is planted between 350 and just over 400 metres, facing mostly southwest, on sand with low percentages of clay and silt. It ferments on the vineyard’s own yeasts, ages in botti and is released only when the house decides it is ready.
The current release is the 2020, about €47 at the cellar door. It took 96 points from Doctor Wine, 94 from Vinum, 93 from Wein.plus and five grappoli from Bibenda; the 2016 earned 92 from Wine Enthusiast and a Slow Wine Top Wine. Scarpa also holds parcels in three benchmark crus, Roncaglie at La Morra, Monvigliero at Verduno and Canova at Neive, and makes Barolo and Barbaresco from them. The flagship is still the Barbera.
“The Barolos carry the famous names. La Bogliona carries the house,” Champion says. “Give a Barbera the site, the botti and the years, and it will hold its own against anything in Piedmont.”
Who Makes La Bogliona?
Remarkably, few hands have shaped it. Antonio Scarpa founded the house in 1900, moving from the island of Burano to Nizza Monferrato to trade wine, then staying to make it, with the declared ambition of producing the best Barbera the region could give him. Mario Pesce bought the winery from him in 1949, having studied in Burgundy and Alsace, and brought back selective harvests, bunch thinning and separate vinifications.
Pesce’s nephew, the oenologist Carlo Castino, pushed the house to acquire Poderi Bricchi in 1969 and made the first great La Bogliona in 1974; he retired in 2007 and never quite left, and still lives above the cellars. Silvio Trinchero, who trained under him, holds the cellar today, under Champion.
One curiosity from the Pesce era survives in your hand: the slightly tapered 75-centilitre Scarpa bottle, drawn with the long neck of a magnum so the wine gets a little more air over a long life.
The rediscovery of Barbera is new. The wine is not. La Bogliona looks less like a find than the bottle the case has been resting on all along, but the test is a pleasant one. Open a mature vintage and taste the decades.
Mark Keast has been a journalist for three decades, starting out as a sports writer and editor for one of Toronto’s largest daily newspapers. Recently he has moved into writing on luxury cars, travel, and Toronto luxury real estate. He owns real estate in downtown Toronto as well, so there’s a vested interest there. Mark spends a lot of his work time connecting with realtors and developers across Canada, staying on top of industry developments.
Check out his stories, and email him direct at mkeast@regardingluxury.com
