Барбера шарабы: тарихы, сипаттамасы және өндіріс аймақтары

Variety of grape

Barbera is a red Italian wine grape variety that, as of 2000, was the third most planted red grape variety in Italy (after Sangiovese and Montepulciano). It produces good yields and is known for deep color, full body, low tannins and high levels of acidity. Century old vines still exist in many regional vineyards and allow for the production of long aging, robust red wines with intense fruit and enhanced tannic content. The best known appellation is the DOCG (Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita) Barbera d'Asti in the Piedmont region: the highest quality Nizza DOCG wines are produced within a sub zone of the Barbera d'Asti production area. When young, the wines offer a very intense aroma of fresh red cherries and blackberries. In the lightest versions notes of cherries, raspberries and blueberries and with notes of blackberry and black cherries in wines made of more ripe grapes. Many producers employ the use of toasted oak barrels, which provides for increased complexity, aging potential, and hints of vanilla notes. The lightest versions are generally known for flavors and aromas of fresh fruit and dried fruits, and are not recommended for cellaring. Wines with a better balance between acid and fruit, often with the addition of oak and having a high alcohol content are more capable of cellaring; these wines often result from reduced yield viticultural methods.

Barbera is believed to have originated in the hills of Monferrato in central Piemonte, Italy, where it has been known since the thirteenth century. Documents from the cathedral of Casale Monferrato between 1246 and 1277 detail leasing agreements of vineyard lands planted with "de bonis vitibus barbexinis" or Barbera, as it was known then. However, one ampelographer, Pierre Viala, speculates that Barbera originated in the Lombardy region of Oltrepò Pavese. In the 19th and 20th centuries, waves of Italian immigrants brought Barbera to the Americas where the vine took root in California and Argentina among other places. In 1985, the Piedmont region was rocked by a scandal involving Barbera producers illegally adding methanol to their wines, killing over 30 people and causing many more to lose their sight. The bad press and publicity saw a steady decline in Barbera sales and plantings, allowing the grape to be eclipsed by the Montepulciano grape as Italy's second most widely planted red grape variety in the late 1990s. At its highpoint in the late 20th century, there were over planted but the fallout from the "Methanol scandal" of the 1980s and the lack of a driving worldwide market caused those numbers to decline. In the Piedmont region, Barbera is widely grown in the Alba Langhe region and the Asti and Monferrato regions. While there is no officially defined Classico region, like Chianti Classico, the region of the Asti province between the towns of Nizza Monferrato, Vinchio, Castelnuovo Calcea, Agliano, Belveglio and Rocchetta is considered among locals to be the "heart" of Barbera in Piedmont. In 2001, the town of Nizza was officially recognized as a sub region within the greater Barbera d'Asti DOC. Being one of the warmest areas in Asti, Nizza has the potential to produce the ripest Barbera with sugar levels to match some of the grape's high acidity. There are some small plantings in Israel. includes Barbera in maturity group 5, which means that it will ripen at about the same time as Shiraz and Merlot, and that it should theoretically find a successful home in many Australian wine regions. Australian wine producers have found some success with Barbera in Victoria. Mount Broke Wines of Broke, is one of the few in New South Wales, Australia. South African producers have begun widespread plantings of the grape in the warm climate regions of Malmesbury, Wellington and Paarl. In addition to Washington, in the Umpqua AVA of Oregon plantings of Barbara is proving successful, as well as plantings in central and southern Arizona.

As with many grapes that are widely planted, there is a wide range of quality and variety of Barbera wines from medium bodied, fruity wines to more powerful, intense examples that need cellaring. Some characteristics of the variety are more consistent—namely its deep ruby color, pink rim, pronounced acidity, and normally rather modest levels of tannins. Barbera is also a parent variety behind Ervi (crossed with Croatina), Incrocio Terezi I (with Cabernet franc), Nigra (with Merlot) and Prodest (also with Merlot).