Barbera del Monferrato Superiore DOCG

The historic Barbera territory — and the one most often overlooked. While Barbera d’Alba and Barbera d’Asti have received enormous critical attention and investment since the 1980s, Barbera del Monferrato remained in the shadow, producing rustic, traditional wines that reflect the variety’s pre-modernization character.

The Territory The Monferrato hills span the provinces of Alessandria and Asti, a vast and varied landscape of chalk, limestone, clay, and sandy soils — lighter and more diverse than the compact Tortonian marls of the Langhe. The DOCG designation requires lower yields and a minimum of 14 months aging, producing wines of greater concentration and structure than the standard DOC.

The Wine Predominantly Barbera, with up to 15% of Freisa or Grignolino permitted — an unusual feature that adds a distinct tannic grip and herbal edge entirely absent from Barbera d’Alba or Barbera d’Asti. The result is a more rustic, angular wine: dark cherry, dried plum, iron, and spice, with the added tension of those native co-cultivars.

The Critical Take The “forgotten” DOCG. Capable of genuine complexity and individuality at a price well below its more famous siblings. Worth seeking for those who want Barbera with character and without polish.

The Infernot The Monferrato has a form of cellar found almost nowhere else. An infernot is a small windowless chamber dug by hand out of the Pietra da Cantoni — a soft calcareous sandstone that cuts like cheese and hardens on exposure — reached from an existing cellar and used solely for storing bottles. No mortar, no ventilation, no light, and a temperature that barely moves across the year. They were cut by families for their own use, often over generations, and when UNESCO inscribed the vineyard landscapes of Piedmont in 2014 the infernot of the Monferrato were named as one of the six component areas.

Pietra da Cantoni The same rock is the reason the wine tastes as it does. It is a marine sandstone rich in fossil shell, far more calcareous and much lighter than the compact Tortonian marls of the Langhe, and it gives a Barbera with more lift and less flesh than Asti or Alba deliver from the same variety.

The Frizzante Question The wider Barbera del Monferrato DOC still permits a lightly sparkling version, which is how most of this wine was drunk for a century and which the Superiore DOCG deliberately excludes. Whether that exclusion was progress or the loss of the region’s own idiom is still argued in the villages.

At the Table Agnolotti del plin, bagna cauda, rabbit, fritto misto alla piemontese, and Robiola di Roccaverano. Serve at 16–17°C.

Benchmark Producers Accornero, Vigneti Massa.