Tasting: Piedmont

Dolcetto & Barbera

21 Pearls from Piedmont

When it comes to Piedmont, nebbiolo immediately comes to mind. But this picture-perfect region grows more grape varieties that can give equally quirky wines. That is why this time we chose reds from Piedmont from everything but nebbiolo. Rice & the unsurpassed wine pro Roy Pelgrim selected the juiciest summer wines. Taste along! - TEXT MAGDA VAN DER RIJST

'What do you want from a Barbera?", I asked guest taster Roy Pelgrim, former maître-sommelier at Restaurant Tribeca** in Heeze and Cordial in Oss and currently working at Anfors-Imperial. Although this importer's portfolio covers many European countries such as Germany, Austria and Spain, a large part is still reserved for Italian wines, which is where it all started for founder Hans Bijvoets. So the fact that Roy, with his weakness for wine from Italy, ended up at Anfors precisely is no coincidence. And neither is the fact that this connoisseur and experienced taster came to our table. 'Well, Barbera,' Roy replied, 'you can go either way with Barbera. It is usually hefty in its acidity. Its structure and power are similar to Nebbiolo, but Barbera is generally less drying. The style of a Dolcetto is more unambiguous. That one is usually lively, fruity and supple - except for the wood-aged, spicier versions from Dogliani.'

Approach & Criteria

For this WINELIFE tasting, besides some Freisa and Brachetto, Barbera and Dolcetto mainly came in. There were 63 in total; our selection consists of 14 Barberas, 5 Dolcettos and 2 Brachettos. All the wines listed here are winners. They came through the selection because of their purity, typicity, balance, dynamism and, also very important, their employability with a long summer meal. Whether that is an intimate lunch with some antipasti or a dinner party with many friends and a spicy stuffed lamb roast from the barbecue. Piedmont has wines for all those happy moments.

Curious about the whole article? You can read it in Winelife edition 71. Order this one here!

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