Any detectives here?

S

Saina Nieminen

Saina Nieminen
Antonio Vallana Barbera del Piemonte

Front label and back. Since the cork has no other info except the words "A. Vallana & F. Maggiora 18.NO" is there any way to estimate how old this bottle might be?

The labels look pristine as does the cork, but the bottle size is 720ml. Probably a recentish release from the winery, perhaps topped up with something newer since it has no ullage? (I guess we can discount fakes when it comes to such bottles?)

Anyway, this was a fantastic wine. I've never had anything but young Barbera, and this certainly was not a young wine. The colour is a light but healthy red (no brown on the rim). It starts out smelling of just generic old wine - pleasant enough if, like me, you enjoy vinous antiques that haven't quite become irredeemably oxidized. And just like so many Piemontese that start out smelling like this, this fills out and becomes wonderfully fragrant with air.

The palate is amazingly vital and sweetly fruity (this is why I thought it might have been topped up with something younger) and is frankly a bit of a surprise after the fragrant but old scent. It finishes with a lovely bitter twist - just the edginess needed for a bit of entrecote.

Whatever this is - topped up old wine, genuine old Barbera, a fake (but why would anyone fake such a thing?) - it is at a wonderful period of maturity and is delicious and it made me happy. One can't ask more from wine so I guess this means it's perfection or a 100 points or, as what is today's 100p., it is interesting in the non-euphemistic way.
 
A cursory internet search suggests the 'Barbera del Piemonte' was a popular pick in the early 90s -recommended by the both Chigaco Tribune and NYTimes as picks under $10 (Prial's 1991 piece shows prices for the Gattinara at $9, Spanna at $8, and Barbera at $5.50, wow!). It appears they still make the wine today, but the Skurnik webpage suggests the label no longer says 'Barbera del Piemonte' any longer, just 'Barbera.' If you would find it believable based on taste, I would guess that your bottle comes from the late-80s or more likely early-mid 90s. This is hardly solid research, though, so hopefully someone knows more.
 
I saw those articles, too, but it isn't clear that "Barbera del Piemonte" can legally be re-labelled as simply "Barbera" because the latter assumes a DOC, right?

Anyway, I came to a similar mushy conclusion as you, David, "late '80s", but I was looking at the style in which the minor data were presented (address, phone, volume). Those have changed over the years, too, and you can track it if you browse up enough pictures of Vallana labels.
 
Judging by the kerning and the multiple word breaks the type on the back label looks like it was set on a computer. That would put the label, at least, in the mid-90s or later. Just an opinion and I could very well be wrong.
 
originally posted by Kay Bixler:
Judging by the kerning and the multiple word breaks the type on the back label looks like it was set on a computer. That would put the label, at least, in the mid-90s or later. Just an opinion and I could very well be wrong.
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Our own Don Cornwell!
 
One thing I did manage to find out from pic searches and from talking to friends who have more experience with this producer is that they started to use 0,75 bottles sometime in the mid to late '70s. So that would suggest that this is early '70s. Except that the labels don't look that old.
 
Hi Otto,

Looking at the back label. According to the page below (and I am no expert) the zero at the beginning of Italian area codes became necessary in December 1998, so the label was possibly printed after then. Best, Don

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en.18dao.net
 
Jeff, I figured something could have changed leading to the wine becoming a DOC bottling in later years. I must admit that I know little about Vallana.
 
originally posted by Otto Nieminen:
One thing I did manage to find out from pic searches and from talking to friends who have more experience with this producer is that they started to use 0,75 bottles sometime in the mid to late '70s. So that would suggest that this is early '70s. Except that the labels don't look that old.
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If a winery is going to store a wine for a while, then release it, the bottles aren't usually labelled until release, so there's nothing odd about the label being newer than the bottle. I can't imagine why anyone would do that on purpose with a Vino da Tavola Barbera, though.
 
According to Mariana (Vallana) Olwen Fogarty, who manages sales for the estate, 750s were adopted over 30 years ago. She says, if that's a 720ml it should be from the 1970s. When I know, I'll post the final vintage 720s were used at the estate.

Hope I find a few of those lying around!
 
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