Winemaker Notes
Very deep ruby red colour with garnet highlights. Ample, rich and complex bouquet with numerous scents of fruit and a background of vanilla, liquorice and cocoa notes. Full, powerful flavour with a great structure, yet elegant and sensual at the same time, harmonious and very persistent. Ideal with roasts and meat dishes, also with sauces, and mature cheeses.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
The Ai Suma, a rare gem made only in the most exceptional vintages, is a paradox in a glass. This opaque late-harvest Barbera may seem imposing, but it's a bear hug of a wine, with blackberry compote, dried violets, star anise and fresh vanilla melding together in harmony. Lush and mouth-filling, it's a powerhouse with restraint, thanks to well-structured tannins and lifting acidity. Drink from 2026.
Cellar Selection -
Wine Spectator
Plum, blackberry, chocolate, spicy pipe tobacco and earth flavors mark this dense, muscular red. Compact and burly on the finish for now, where a bitter almond note emerges. This improved with air, so decant now or age for a few more years. Best from 2026 through 2036.
Friendly and approachable, Barbera produces wines in a wide range of styles, from youthful, fresh and fruity to serious, structured and age-worthy. Piedmont is the most famous source of Barbera; those from Asti and Alba garner the most praise. Barbera actually can adapt to many climates and enjoys success in some New World regions. Somm Secret—In the past it wasn’t common or even accepted to age Barbera in oak but today both styles—oaked and unoaked—abound and in fact most Piedmontese producers today produce both styles.
Recognized as the source of the best Barbera in all of Italy, Asti is a province (as well as major city) in Piedmont, consisting of a gentle, rolling landscape with vineyards, farmland and forests alternating throughout.
Barbera d’Asti can be made in an array of styles from relatively straightforward, fruity and ready for consumption early, to the more concentrated, oak aged version with an ability to cellar impressively for 10-15 years and beyond. Some of the very best sites for Barbera in Asti are concentrated in the subzone of Nizza Monferrato. Other red varieties grown here include Freisa, Grignolino and Dolcetto, which can be bottled varietally or blended into Barbera.
Historically consumers commonly associated the Asti region with Asti Spumante and Moscato d’Asti, both playful, aromatic, sparkling wines made from the Muscat grape. Asti Spumante is less sweet, fully fizzy and more alcoholic (yet still clocking in at only around 9% alcohol) while Moscato d’Asti is sweeter, gently sparkling (“frizzante”) and closer to 5 or 6% alcohol. Each is produced in stainless steel tanks to preserve the fresh and fruity flavors of the grape, often including peach, apricot, lychee and rose petal. Asti is also the spot for the pink-hued Brachetto d'Acqui, a slightly sparkling wine ready to charm with its raspberry and rose flavors and aromas.