2021 Barbera d'Alba Superiore

Full bottle 1,323 g. Certified organic (Ecocert), sustainable (SQNPI). Barbera is very sensitive to flavescence dorée and esca, so little by little they have lost their old Barbera d’Alba vineyards. The grapes for this wine mostly come from a ‘gorgeous vineyard’, according to Giuseppe Vajra. ‘Fantastic land which was forgotten.’ The Vajra family planted it with vines in 2000. A very steep vineyard (80–90% in some places!), terraced. Very hard and complicated to farm (risky). The roots of the vines go very deep. These are fruit tannins, not oak tannins, Vajra points out. They did submerged-cap maceration for about 35 days in 2021. Aged for nine months, including almost six months in large Slavonian casks. Bottled on 19 August 2022. This is so alive and glorious that I wanted to throw my head back and laugh with the sheer pleasure of it. The fruit is pulsing with purity, dripping with dark, shining, deep indigo and gentian ‘blues’. Wild blackberry, violet, balsamic notes, black pepper etched into every silky soft fold of fruit and tannin. Incredible tannins – long and long and long, the texture of cashmere and cork bark. The finish is succulent, like a long kiss. It carries its alcohol with graceful ease. Real beauty here. (TC)

From their best vineyards. This wine is mostly Bricco Bertone in Signo (Serralunga soil) and Bricco della Viole. 30- to 45-year-old vines. 25–35 days of maceration followed by two years in botte. Denser than the regular botting and with much more potential. Still a little tight. (JR)

I'm told that this is probably the last vintage in which the 2021 Barbera d'Alba Superiore Viola delle Viole will carry the name Viola delle Viole. In yet another unfortunate nod to climate change, Barbera vines suffer from the floral disease Flavescence dorée that causes the plants to shut down and the fruit to remain unripened. Barbera, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc are the most hard-hit by the sickness. Freisa and Nebbiolo are resistant, and those varieties are planted around the rims of vineyards today as a protective barrier. As a result, Barbera vines in Bricco delle Viole (one of two sites present in this blend, the other being Bricco Bertone outside the Barolo area) were taken out. Barbera tends to produce wines with high alcohol, but the Vajra team prefers to reach optimal fruit maturity and is less concerned about alcohol. The grape always has high acidity, but that is "a problem that is going away on its own," says Isidoro Vaira. Bricco delle Viole gives the wine its floral aromas and Bricco Bertone adds a sweet almond-like flavor. There is a seven- to eight-day harvest difference between the two sites. This wine ages in large oak casks for 16 months.