Winemaker Notes
This is a very pleasant wine, easy to match with many international dishes. It is especially good with pasta dishes with different sauces as well as poultry and red meats (beef and pork).
Professional Ratings
-
Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2014 Michele Chiarlo Barbera d'Asti Nizza Cipressi is an impressive wine. TASTING NOTES: This wine shows excellent form beginning to end. Pair its aromas and flavors of ripe berries and sandalwood with pan-seared skirt steak. (Tasted: April 26, 2019, San Francisco, CA)
-
Wine Spectator
Bright and pure, offering violet, blackberry, black currant and light spice aromas and flavors. Beautifully balanced and expressive, yet with the structure to age. Drink now through 2025.
-
Wine Enthusiast
This wine's wild berry, violet, porcini, forest floor and crushed herb aromas leap out of the glass. The vibrant, focused palate evokes wild cherry, cranberry, star anise and orange zest. It's a classic Barbera framed by firm acidity and refined tannins that shows its Nizza origins.
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.