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5218 Lawton Avenue
Oakland, CA 94114

510-654-9159

Oliver McCrum Wines has been importing small production Italian wine and distributing to fine retail and restaurant establishes throughout California since 1994. Over time, our portfolio of producers has steadily grown to over 45 producers from 15 different regions of Italy. We look for typical Italian wines with clarity and freshness, usually made from indigenous Italian grape varieties using clean, transparent winemaking techniques and no obvious use of oak. 

Barbera

Barbera is said to be indigenous to Piedmont, possibly to the Monferrato area near Asti. Unlike the other two primary Piedmontese varieties it is widely planted outside of the region, and outside of Italy. It produces wines of middling to dark color, with aromas and flavors that range from bright cherry to a deeper plum, acidity that ranges from moderate to high, and very little tannin.

There are three Piedmontese Barbera DOCs: Alba, Asti and Monferrato. The Alba Barberas are normally made by Nebbiolo producers, for whom they fall in between Nebbiolo and Dolcetto; harvested and vinified after Dolcetto but before Nebbiolo, perhaps given some oak maturation but sold well before the Barolo or Barbaresco. Most better Albese producers are using at least some small wood on Barbera, but the range is wide.

The Asti producers have completely changed the way they make Barbera in the last twenty years or so. Barbera d'Asti used to be famously rustic and sharply acidic, due to overcropping and a poor understanding of malolactic fermentation; now the best wines are bright but not sharp, ripe, concentrated and very clean. The first producer to use barriques to age Barbera was an Asti producer called Giacomo Bologna, and this style is often found here.

The Monferrato is home to many old Barbera vineyards. As yet there are very few producers of note, but the raw material is there and it seems likely that this will be an important source of high-quality Barbera before too long. Note that in Asti and the Monferrato, Barbera is the primary grape and is therefore planted in the best vineyard sites, sites that an Albese producer would use for Nebbiolo.

The styles of Barbera:

•old-fashioned rustic Asti, no wood or dirty larger cooperage, cranberry flavor and acidity, 11.5% ABV, haphazard malolactic;

•modern everyday, lower yields (probably less than 50 hl/ha), raspberry flavor, possibly six months in larger cooperage, bright but not biting acidity, up to 14% ABV or higher; Pavia's 'Bricco Blina' is a great example

•Bologna-style barrique barbera, produced in all three zones; very ripe fruit, 12-18 months in small French oak, sometimes roto-fermented and therefore very dark in color, sometimes over-extracted (this last could be referred to as the ‘Tre Bicchieri’ style).