Villa Giada. Barbera 'Ajan'

Barbera d'Asti DOCG
Grape: Barbera

Full, ripe cherry and red berry fruit; vibrant and open, with the gentlest grip of tannin and secondary porcini flavours just poking through.  There is a little prickle of CO2 when first opened, this does blow off if you leave the bottle open for an hour, it is lovely chilled too.

The 2018 vintage had periods where the climate was almost tropical, the growth in the vineyard was unprecedented and a huge effort was needed to keep everything under control.  This may have caused Andrea much extra work but it definitely suited Barbera, this is an excellent vintage.

link to Andrea Faccio, Villa Giada home page

The town of Agliano Terme, known by locals as Ajan , is famous for its Barbera.  Andrea's vineyard here faces from South-East to South-West, the soils are clay, rich in marl and chalk.  The grapes have all been harvested by mid-October, with the selection taking place mainly in the vineyard the bunches that make the cut are de-stemmed before pressing.  The must is fermented using wild yeasts and the wine stays on the skins for three weeks after which it is decanted into steel (80%) and tonneaux (20%) for a year.  Ajan, like all Andrea’s reds is made the old way and bottled without filtration so as it ages it will throw a slight sediment ‘fondo’.