That Barbera is no longer what it once was, everyone will agree. The wine has grown, has discovered the new dimension; that of the great wines of the world.
It has joined the best wine lists of the most celebrated restaurants, and placed itself alongside the fine Barolo and Barbaresco among Piedmontese wines of noble ancestry.

Research in the vineyard, intelligent use of small barrels, reducing the yield from the vines and not least the passion of the producers has refined the characteristics and the collective image of this red grape variety - the most widely cultivated and loved in Piedmont.
Above all it is Barbera d'Asti DOC, considered the most classical, that has escaped from the niche market thanks to the growing number of small and medium producers with the ability to create the demand, providing continually improving quality in recent years.
In this new arena it becomes clear that the right glass for Barbera could certainly no longer be the one that belongs with trattoria crockery (now firmly relegated to water): wine such as this has unbelievably more to offer when it is twirled in a crystal glass, which can express the best of the perfumes and taste. .

The Austrian Georg Riedel is one of the most noted and conscientious glass producers in the world; perhaps the first to have made of the glass a true and proper utensil for fine wine. His wine glasses, familiar among restaurateurs and producers, have in Italy their biggest market anywhere in the world for annual sales and the total number of glasses.

The news is that Georg Riedel, seeing the importance which Barbera has assumed, has decided to dedicate one of his glasses to this wine.
This means that in the restaurants of the sixty countries to which his glassware is exported, and where Barbera has not always yet assumed the status of fine wine, the existence of a goblet of such eminent quality called Barbera will provide a promotional campaign for its image, to the benefit of all the producers.
The selection for a meticulous personality like Georg Riedel could not be something random. Thus the decision was taken with Angelo Gaja, the importer for Italy through Gaja Distribuzione, to organize the necessary professional tasting of the various styles of Barbera in the various samples of glass in conjunction with one of the historic wine producers - and one of the most innovatory - Bava of Cocconato d'Asti.

This tasting was particularly complex, with the need to choose, across Barberas of differing styles, initially between 13 different experimental glasses specially sent from Vienna. It took place at the end of July 1999 in the ancient cellars in Cocconato. It involved a table of a dozen expert tasters, Italian and foreign, chosen from among enological experts, publishers of wine journals and Michelin-starred chefs, as well as the essential representation of producers.
The differences, at times imperceptible, at times marked, established that the glasses could be gradually eliminated, one by one, from a selection of the best, until eventually there remained on the table the one considered absolutely the best.

The wines chosen from the differing terrains for this test were a typical young elegant Barbera La Tota 1997 from the Marchesi Alfieri, Arbest 1995 a Barbera Superiore of Bava which combines innovation and tradition, Stradivario Bava 1995 - one of the first Super?Barberas born of refinement in barrique, and Bricco del Uccellone 1985 of Braida, another great classic considered a founder of this style.
To the final group of Barberas was added PianAlto 1996 Bava as an example of the new style of Super-Barberas for the near future.

The glass that was selected is a splendid goblet in blown crystal glass with a long stem and a mouth that converges to gather the scents of fruit and flower which the wine can express - and also the elegant tones of vanilla which in many Barberas signal development in fine wood. It was the intention to identify a single type of glass for the diverse types of styles of wine that exist within this denomination of vine. The Riedel Glass chosen was by far the most able to exalt all these characteristics in a single "instrument".

All the tasters, in spite of the fact that they were of proven experience, declared themselves amazed and still more convinced of the role of the glass in the sensory evaluation of wine. And beneath the ancient vaults of Casa Brina in Cocconato, the highest hill in Monferrato, Barbera had confirmed itself anew to be a great wine.

 July 1999