Cascina Val del Prete, Barbera d'Alba "Serra de' Gatti"

The old narrative about the Barbera grape in Piedmont is that it was the variety you planted in places where the more “noble” Nebbiolo wouldn’t ripen. Barbera has also been typecast as the wine the farmers drink, so they can reserve the fancier Nebbiolo-based wines (Barolo, Barbaresco, etc.) for the customers. But Barbera is deserving of more respect. Perhaps the first Piedmontese winemaker to embrace this was the late Giacomo Bologna, who saw that the grape was capable of greatness if treated with appropriate care (and a healthy dose of oak aging). At Cascina Val di Prete, in Roero, they don’t even need the barrels: Just a well-positioned vineyard with old vines in sandy soils. This is a Barbera of serious structure and class, full of concentrated fruit, lively acidity, and mineral depth. This estate is one of the stalwarts of the Roero DOCG zone, in Italy’s Piedmont region, just across the Tànaro River from another famous growing zone: Barolo. Similarities between Roero and Barolo ab