Professor Bainbridge...on law, politics, religion, culture & food

I had what I considered a nice Barbera from Valley of the Moon Winery in Sonoma. It was spicy and fun. Have shared it with several friends since and they all love it. I have several more bottles that I’m holding onto I thought it was so nice.

So are the Barberas to which you specifically refer to with fond memories still available or is it their lack of availability today that has you missing them?

Feel like a late arrival to the party, just found your blog.  Great stuff, thanks.  Have you tried Seghesio’s barbera.  That was my introduction to the varietal and I’ve discovered I enjoy it very much when I want something bold and fun to go with pizza or grilled foods.

Dylan: I’m sure that the Martini Barberas of the 1980s are all over the hill by now.

Zingrrl: I’m a big fan of Seghesio, but have not tried their Barbera. Will give it a go.

It’s unfortunately true that most California Barberas have been disappointing in modern times.

As you recall, for a long time, Louis Martini made wonderful Barberas. However, there was an even better unsung hero of Barbera in California—old Gus Sebastiani. Sebastiani made some truly outstanding Barberas, quite ageworthy, in the 1960s and early 1970s.  In particular, the 1970 was a great wine (a term I use rarely).  In the late 1980s, I was dining with a colleague who drank primarily Premier Grand Cru Bordeaux and Grand Cru Burgundy, and had little use for California wines.  Knowing I was the California wine afficianado, he asked me to order a California red—and I found a 1970 Sebastiani Barbera on the list.  Fully mature at 18, the wine was a revelation to him.  I don’t have my tasting notes on the wine at hand, but, relying on memory (it was that memorable a wine), it still had solid, concentrated fruit, overlaid with the complexities we associate with bottle age, firm in the middle and with a long, smoothed velvet finish.

From my experience, the ‘68 was close to as good, and both the 1973 and 1974 were outstanding (but not great) wines into their teens.

An additional thought on Seghesio - the family have been growers of Italian varietals since the late 19th century, when they left Italian Swiss Colony (then a premium wine producer) to become grape growers.  They have a vineyard, probably planted about that time, that is a field blend that closely approximates the traditional Chianti blend.  Most people are unaware of this, and associate Seghesio with good quality Zinfandel and their long history as one of the major Sonoma County bulk wine producers who supplied large quantities of Zinfandel and Carignane to major wineries for blending.

I led a wine tour group this past July that did a luncheon tasting at Seghesio. We tasted several of their Zinfandels and, accompanying the luncheon (which was superb!), several Italian varietal wines they are now making from their own and purchased fruit.  I have always found Seghesio Zinfandel a little rough around the edges for my taste, and this tasting was no exception.  Ted Seghesio, the winemaker, is making big fruit forward Zinfandel, harvesting at higher sugars than I would prefer (over 26 in some cases, almost always over 25.5), following the current style, and ending up with alcohols at or above 15%. I think I actually preferred some of the Zinfandel they used to sell for blending, which I occasionally tasted as a kid.

The revelation was their very high quality Italian varietals.  The Barbara was rather hot in my view (over 15%) as was the Sangiovese, but it worked better in the Sangiovese than in the Barbera.  The real star was their (expensive) Omaggio, a roughly 60/40 Cab/Sangiovese blend that came in at 14.9% (harvested at 25.5), but was well balanced to carry the weight so one hardly noticed it.