Barbaresco comes from the right bank of the Tanaro, a few kilometres north-east of Alba, in an area much smaller than that of Barolo: the municipalities of Barbaresco, Neive and Treiso and the Alba hamlet of San Rocco Seno d'Elvio, for about seven hundred hectares of vineyard. The wine takes its name from the village and owes its modern character to Domizio Cavazza, who founded the first cooperative winery here at the end of the nineteenth century. The DOC dates from 1966, the DOCG from 1980.
The regulations allow only Nebbiolo. Minimum ageing is 26 months from the harvest, 9 of them in wood, against Barolo's 38; the Riserva requires 50. Minimum alcohol is 12.5 degrees. Here too the territory has been mapped into additional geographical mentions, 66 in all, identifying individual vineyards and hamlets.
Compared with Barolo, Barbaresco is generally finer and ready sooner: garnet colour, aromas of rose, raspberry and spice, dense but less imposing tannins. It suits red meat, feathered game, mushrooms and truffle, and the aged cheeses of the Langhe.
