Winemaker Notes
#54 Wine Spectator Top 100 of 2023
Michele Chiarlo Nizza Cipressi Barbera is a bright ruby red color. Surprising in its clarity and elegance with hints of violet, blackberries, raspberries, and spicy sweet notes. Full, well-structured, harmonious; an impressive wine with its fresh softness and final savory and round flavor.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Deeply colored, this Barbera from Nizza is a true benchmark. The wine has aromas of black cherry, blackberry and plums with a touch of sweet and savory spice. The palate has a gentle and soft texture finishing with a bright acidity keeping the wine lifted and energetic.
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Wine Spectator
This dense red is very tightly wound and racy, revealing blackberry and violet flavors that show accents of tamarind and roasted almond. Still a bit compact on the finish.
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James Suckling
Plenty of energetic blackberry character to this 100% barbera, with a slightly steely edge growing through the palate. Bright acidity and minimal tannin. This is very much in-your-face, but it’s not aggressive.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Michele Chiarlo 2019 Nizza Cipressi is a generous and abundant expression of Barbera with an inky dark color. The bouquet reveals blackberry, blackcurrant and lots of rich primary fruit. Cipressi is fermented in steel and aged in large oak casks for one year. The wine's texture is soft and plush, and you get that little kick of acidity that is characteristic of this versatile grape.
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.