2022 Inigo Barbera

This is a variety that often as not doesn’t work that well in Australia, finishing too thin and hard. Yet here is something that does work. Characteristic red fruits on the nose with a leafy intervention. There are some nice floral notes in there as well. The palate is seamlessly integrated with attractive red fruit characters. It’s medium bodied and suggests it can be chilled slightly for summer drinking.

A friend of mine recently declared, ‘how can you not love Barbera? It would be like not loving puppies’. I’ll confess I was a bit on the fence about the variety until a recent visit to Piedmont showed me how wrong I was and how good a decent Barbera can be. Local examples may not quite have got there yet, but they are well on the way. This one, from the Clare Valley, is matured in tank with a small percentage also matured in new French hogsheads. Dark crimson in colour, we have notes of dry herbs, warm earth, mushrooms, animal skins and red currants. There is good acidity running the length and bright flavours on the palate. Thanks to fine tannins and excellent length, this is a very elegantly structured Barbera, as lovable as any puppy. Drink now and for four to five years.