Winemaker Giorgio Rivetti is a sort of larger-than-life figure, the kind of guy who everyone in the wine business knows and respects.  Although he’s in a partnership with his brothers and now son, it’s Giorgio who took the family grape growing business from selling a few hundred cases of Moscato d’Asti to owning four winemaking facilities in Piedmont and one in Tuscany, producing some of Italy’s most-coveted still, sparkling wines and spirits.  To call him driven, would be an understatement.  As it is, I know him better than most as he and I go back over 30 years.  Our birthyears are the same and, when we’re together, either here or in Italy, we try and throw ourselves a party.  The last one was held at Giorgio’s winery in Grinzane-Cavour in the Barolo region.  It was, in typical Giorgio fashion, for around 60 of his best friends and featured his sister’s marvelous homemade pasta, raw Fassona beef crudo chopped by Giorgio himself and large format Rivetti bottles as far as they eye could see, including magnums of the prized Bionzo Barbera you have here.  But there’s another side to Giorgio that a lot of people don’t see- the serious farming, winemaking and business side. He’s a true visionary but, unlike a lot of visionaries out there, he’s also a slave to the details, the little things that, when added together, create the nexus for the kind of success he envisioned at the beginning of La Spinetta.  This Barbera is, I guess, a testament to that.   The winery La Spinetta takes its name from the “top of the hill” in the town of Castagnole Lanze, where Giorgio’s father  Giuseppe ‘Pin’ Rivetti settled in 1977 and set out to prove Moscato’s potential by bottling Italy’s first single-vineyard wines. The first Rivetti red, the Barbera Cà di Pian, followed in 1985.  Today Pin’s sons, Giorgio, along with Bruno and Carlo, farm roughly 100 hectares of vineyards and Giorgio directs the winemaking and plans for world domination.  And, despite the success he’s had making bubbles and spirits at Contratto, the Barolo and Barbarescos he makes in the Langhe and fabulous Tuscan wines he makes near Pisa, Barbera is still very important here.  The Bionzo Barbera d’Asti Superiore was first made in 1998, the harvest coming not six weeks after Giorgio completed the purchase of the old vineyard he had so long desired.   The vines, now more than 65 years old, grow on south-facing calcareous clay and marl at about 250 meters. Farming is, of course, organic. Typically he harvests the fruit from late September into early October (although this 2022 was two weeks earlier) and ferments it for 11 days in horizontal, gentle rotofermenters. The wine ages 16 to 18 months in French oak barriques, 30% of which are new, and is bottled unfiltered and unfined. This is Barbera with the volume at 11!  Dark ruby in color, it opens with brooding cherry, plum and dark fruits with rose and violet florals joining the party. The palate is opulently textured and layered with the Barbera’s always lively acidity folded into the concentrated fruit rather than standing apart. Dark and inward looking yet polished and expressive, it finishes long and has the stuffing to cellar.  You should probably have some at your next birthday party!    

Validation Department:

Jeb Dunnuck: The Bionzo vineyard naturally produces low yields and concentrated fruit. The 2022 Barbera D'Asti Superiore Bionzo pours a saturated magenta purple hue and offers aromas of fresh plum, preserved blackberries, rosemary, and sweet spice. Aged in 50% new and 50% medium-toast French oak, it’s full-bodied, with plush tannins, savory depth, and balanced richness. Drink 2026-2036. 93 points