Delicate Barbaresco finally comes of age

The youngest darling in fine wine's family is Barbaresco.

France's Bordeaux wine, for instance, was documented in 379 A.D., but Barbaresco wasn't even conceived until the 1890s.

A product of experimentation with the Nebbiolo grape, coupled with the sun and soil of Italy's Piedmont province, Barbaresco spent most of the 1900s looking for an identity and a market. From the beginning, Barbaresco struggled in the shadow of neighboring Barolo, whose Nebbiolo-based wine was known throughout Europe by the 1800s as "the king of wine, wine of kings."

Barbaresco is inherently more delicate than Barolo, with an early harvest that avoids October rain, but sacrifices the richness Barolo receives from October sun.

In the late 1900s, Barbaresco came into its own. To enhance her more delicate body, producers shifted away from Barolo-style techniques, such as prolonged maceration and cask aging, toward shorter rests on grape skins and aged in wood. At the same time, barriques (small, French oak barrels) spread rapidly, accentuating Barbaresco's spicy character. To guard against the "international style," producers opted against a permitted addition of the French grape, Cabernet Sauvignon.

Names of top producers and their styles entered the wine world's vocabulary: traditionalist Bruno Giacosa and his opulent wine; the elegant Marchesi di Gresy and his elegant wine; barrique-champion, Angelo Gaja; La Spinetta's extracted styles and Produtorri del Barbaresco that since its formation in 1958 has upheld the "highest standards of wine making for any cooperative in the world," says wine guru Robert Parker.

If your retailer has sold through the stellar 2004 vintage, don't despair. Despite a rainy harvest, the wines of 2005 are harmonizing more beautifully than expected and will arrive in Chicago as this column comes to print.