D’Annona Barbera d’Asti Superiore
The d'Annona vineyard is owned by Claudio Manera and his wife Lella - and it is here that they live. The wine of the same name is made by their son Carlo at Il Cascinone and the result is a sublime and opulent Barbera.
Piemonte
Italy
Food Match
Perfect with Carne cruda (steak tartare in France) and also great with lamb cutlets, steak or a rich Piemontese bean stew.
Tasting Notes
A ripe, intense nose of cherry, blacked earth, spice and savory aromas leads to a silky smooth palate of sour cherry, herbs, leather with some floral, violet notes. An impressively concentrated wine with good structure, weight of black cherry fruit and sweet ripe tannins. The finish provides some refreshing astringency and good acidity.
Production
The d'Annona vineyard is a fantastic single vineyard site with vines in excess of 60 years old. The grapes selected for this wine are grown on two small parcels totaling a little over 8.5 acres. The grapes are hand-picked, de-stemmed, crushed and inoculated with selected yeasts. The grapes must under go temperature-controlled fermentation in stainless steel with pumping over four times per a day. The wine is then racked to a mixture of new (two-thirds) and one year old (one-third) French oak barriques where it undergoes malolactic fermentation and is aged 18-20 months. It spends a further 18 months in bottle before release.