Barbera can be fresh, vertical and everyday. But it can also become austere, long‑lived, deeply territorial and surprisingly elegant over time. This is the picture that emerged from the tasting held in Milan on 6 March, where Vinchio Vaglio showcased the many identities of the Monferrato’s signature grape through six different interpretations and two historical vintages capable of revealing both the variety’s ageing depth and the stylistic hand of the Piedmontese cooperative. It was a journey that retraced the work Vinchio Vaglio has built over the past decades: from the enhancement of old vines to the definition of a style that blends vineyard tradition with technical precision in the cellar. A story that began in 1959, when 19 growers from Vinchio and Vaglio Serra decided to join forces to escape speculation on Piedmontese grapes.
Vinchio Vaglio: the Monferrato cooperative that turned Barbera into identity
“Today we are able to guarantee income to our growers, who produce little but choose the path of quality. In this way we support social sustainability, the landscape and hospitality in the area,” explained Lorenzo Giordano, president of Vinchio Vaglio, opening the Milan tasting.
The cooperative now counts 192 members, around 550 hectares of vineyards and a production exceeding 35,000 hectolitres. Barbera covers 75% of the vineyard area, but the real strength lies in the ability to select parcels and tailor interpretations according to each vintage. “We’re like a football team for Barbera: depending on the year, we send one player or another onto the field,” Giordano added.
This philosophy revolves around the enhancement of old vines, an intuition born in the 1980s thanks to the work of oenologist Giuliano Noè, unanimously considered “one of the noble fathers of Barbera”. At a time when many wineries were replanting their oldest vineyards, Vinchio Vaglio chose instead to preserve and elevate them, shaping one of the most recognisable identities in the denomination.
Sorì dei Mori: the contemporary, drinkable face of Barbera
The tasting opened with Sorì dei Mori Barbera d’Asti docg 2024, a wine that expresses the most immediate and gastronomic side of Barbera. The vintage, marked by heavy rains and irregular weather, pushed the winery to focus on fruit freshness.
A deliberately wood‑free interpretation, aged only in concrete and bottle, centred on immediacy and territorial purity. In the glass, it shows a clean, flowing Barbera built on blackberry, acidity and drinkability, with an initially austere profile that gradually opens. One of the wines that impressed us most at WineCouture for its ability to combine precision and immediacy.
I Tre Vescovi and Vigne Vecchie 50: two opposite readings of Barbera
With I Tre Vescovi Barbera d’Asti Superiore docg 2023, the tone shifts. Structure increases, the ageing in 75‑hl French oak casks adds volume, and the wine becomes more compact and deep, almost monolithic, while maintaining balance between fruit, acidity and its structural backbone.
Then came Vigne Vecchie 50 Barbera d’Asti docg 2023, created in 2009 to celebrate the winery’s 50th anniversary but rooted in the old‑vine selection work started in the 1980s. Made from the same vineyards as the flagship Vigne Vecchie, it takes a completely different approach: no wood, with the focus on fruit, freshness and the grape’s natural energy. A Barbera “like it used to be”, as the winery describes it.
Freshness leads the way, supported by a savoury, elegant texture where structure, verticality and persistence emerge. Intense yet dynamic.
Laudana 2022 and Sei Vigne Insynthesis 2019: Vinchio Vaglio’s Nizza docg
The heart of the tasting moved to Nizza docg, where Vinchio Vaglio expresses its most territorial and profound interpretations.
Laudana Nizza docg 2022 comes from one of Vinchio’s most historic and vocated slopes, a three‑hectare single cru that in 1989 achieved the highest price ever recorded at the Barbera d’Asti auction. Since 2020, ageing has shifted entirely to large 75‑hl casks, aiming for greater precision, clarity and elegance.
The result is a Barbera marked by plum, sweet spices, roundness and savouriness, with dense yet well‑integrated tannins. Another standout wine for us at WineCouture for its balance and expressive precision.
More intense and layered is Sei Vigne Insynthesis Nizza Riserva docg 2019, the symbol of the cooperative’s extreme parcel selection. Born in 2001 from just six historic vineyards, it was described by Carlo Petrini as “the Mother of all Barberas”.
Black fruit, spices, boisé notes and dried fruit define a structured, deep Barbera aged for about 20 months in new barriques and clearly built for longevity.
The test of time: when Barbera surprises with longevity
The final part of the tasting was perhaps the most surprising, dedicated to the ageing capacity of Vinchio Vaglio’s wines.
Vigne Vecchie Barbera d’Asti Superiore doc 2006 showed remarkable vitality: the fruit is still alive, but the acidity is what truly stands out, giving drive and freshness to a wine that seems to defy time. Violet, liquorice, hints of eucalyptus, stewed fruit and spices emerge in a texture that remains surprisingly elegant. Probably the wine that best expressed the potential of Monferrato Barbera. One of the most convincing wines of the entire tasting for us at WineCouture.
To close, Sei Vigne Insynthesis Barbera d’Asti Superiore docg 2016, built on balance, depth and elegance, once again supported by that freshness that seems to be the true hallmark of Vinchio Vaglio’s style.
Tradition, old vines and sustainability: Vinchio Vaglio’s vision
The Milan tasting offered the portrait of a cooperative that has chosen to turn Barbera into a complete territorial narrative. Not just wine, but landscape protection, preservation of historic vineyards and social sustainability.
From the old‑vine project to joining the Old Vine Conference, Vinchio Vaglio continues to enhance a unique viticultural heritage, crafting wines that seek identity rather than standardisation.
And it is precisely this plurality of expressions — from the most immediate Barbera to long‑ageing wines — that made the Milan tasting a truly complete and contemporary reading of the beauty of Monferrato’s wine landscape.
