Brezza Barbera d’Alba Superiore 2022
£23.45
The wine
A pure and modern reflection of Barbera with dark berried fruits, plum and cherry and a touch of delicate spice. The well-balanced palate shows great suavity, with fine-grained tannins and lifted sweet cherry fruit on the long finish.
Barbera d'Alba Superiore requires higher minimum alcohol and a year of ageing before release. Barbera is naturally high in acidity and low in tannin, which is why it has always been Piedmont's table wine, and the extra time in cask rounds it without smothering the sour-cherry fruit that defines it.
The producer
Brezza
View all Brezza winesTwelve and a half hectares of vines in the commune of Barolo, taking in parcels of Cannubi, Castellero and Sarmassa, with the two-hectare Santa Rosalia estate just outside the DOCG boundary and further plots at Monforte and Novello. The family have farmed organically since the 2015 vintage.
Brezza are traditionalists in a region that spent the 1990s arguing about it. The so-called Barolo Wars pitted modernists, who favoured short macerations, small French barrique and early approachability, against traditionalists working long macerations in large old Slavonian oak casks that add structure rather than flavour. Enzo Brezza belongs firmly to the second camp and intervenes as little as he can.
The family also run a hotel and restaurant in the village of Barolo, which they have done since 1885, and the winery has been making wine under its own label since 1910. Holding parcels in both Cannubi and Sarmassa, two of the finest crus in the commune, gives an unusually direct comparison between neighbouring hillsides.
