Barbera d'Alba Superiore, Betlem, Pedemontis 2021
James Suckling 93; Decanter 91; Gold, Sommelier Wine Awards 2025; By the Glass, Sommelier Wine Awards 2025
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Why this wine
Betlem is one hectare on a single hill given over entirely to Barbera, from an estate that farms with donkeys rather than machinery and has brought abandoned land back into production. It is Barbera treated as seriously as Nebbiolo usually is.
At a glance
- Grape
- Barbera
- Region
- Piedmont, Italy
- Alcohol
- 14.50%
- Body
- Medium
- Acidity
- High
- Tannins
- Medium
- Sweetness
- Dry
- Drink
- Medium (5-10 yrs)
- Pairs with
- Red Meat, Pasta, Cheese
How it tastes
Black plum and blackberry, intense and opulent, the oak reading as warm spice rather than sweetness. Medium-bodied but richly built at 14.5%, with fine tannin, the high acidity Barbera always carries, and real weight on the finish. Barbera 100%.
The producer
Pedemontis farms 260 hectares of vineyard, forest, truffle ground and hazelnut grove on the hills of Roero and Langhe, much of it marginal land rescued from abandonment, with thirteen hectares of mature vines and two younger plots; the estate works a closed-cycle model in which thirty donkeys graze the wild grasses between the rows and fertilise them in turn. Betlem is a single hectare on the Betlemme hill in the commune of Priocca, on the border with San Damiano d'Asti, sitting at 270 metres with a south-westerly aspect, its mostly calcareous soil running about 130cm deep over rock and mixing limestone, rock salt, sand and clay with chalky sulphuric formations. The hand-picked fruit was destemmed and fermented in stainless steel with native yeasts and light pump-overs, four weeks on the skins, followed by two weeks of malolactic conversion and eleven months of maturation, seventy per cent in French oak tonneau and thirty per cent in barrel. Spring frosts cut the 2021 yield, but a hot, dry season drawing on winter snowmelt brought the fruit to excellent ripeness at harvest.
Food and drinking
Serve at 16-18C, with half an hour in a decanter. Try it with a rare ribeye, sausages and lentils, tagliatelle al ragu, or a plate of salumi and Toma. Drink over the next five to ten years. Suitable for vegetarians and vegans.