Barbera

Barbera is the everyday red of Piedmont in northwest Italy and one of the country's most-planted dark grapes: a deeply coloured, juicy wine built on very high, mouth-watering acidity, soft-to-moderate tannin and a generous core of ripe red and black cherry. Long the cheerful "people's wine" poured at the Piedmontese table beside Nebbiolo's aristocratic Barolo, it has been reinvented since the 1980s into a serious, oak-aged red as well. Bright, refreshing and remarkably food-friendly, it is one of the most versatile reds at any meal. Its two great homes are Barbera d'Asti and Barbera d'Alba.