Cascina Val de Prete
Serra de Gatti
2024
Piemonte
Barbera d'Alba DOCG
Barbera 100%
6 Months
Stainless Steel
100%
Blueberry, Sage, Pomegranate, Blackberry
About
Cascina Val de Prete 2024 Serra de Gatti
Style: Full bodied, velvety smooth and surprisingly versatile Barbera is one of the unsung heroes of Italian wine.
Soil: sandy-clay with resurfacing of gray-bluish marl, alkaline pH
Exposure: east-west
Altitude: 250m asl
Training system: vertical trellis
Pruning: Guyot
Crop density: 5,000 vines per ha
Harvest: manual in mid-to late September
Vinification: fermentation and skin contact maceration for 25-30 days in stainless steel tanks, malolactic fermentation
Aging: 6 months in stainless steel and 3 months in bottle
Bottles per year: 15,000
Full bodied, weekday option for those who want a robust red without grippy tannins or ripping acidity.
Pairings
In a Pinch
Pepperoni Pizza.
Deeper Dive
Full but not too rich, acidity to pair but not to offend, Barbera is the gadget tool of big reds. Deceptively high acidity cuts through richness without requiring food and the lower tannin is surprisingly tolerant of a little heat.
If you usually drink Cabernet Sauvignon but want something that won’t overpower roast poultry or duck, this is where you want to be. The perfect dinner party wine along with an approachable price point, bring with confidence and show your friends something new.
Pairing Scale
This is a general guide to give you an idea where this wine falls in a spectrum of dish complexities.
Steer Clear
Light and simple dishes such as baked fish will be lost here. Save it for your medium-rich main course land proteins and be delighted by how well it plays.
Cheeses
Robiola
Robiola
Country: Italy
Animal: Cow, sheep
Type: Soft, semi-soft
Texture: Creamy
Rind: Edible
Style: Smooth, rich
Toma
Toma
Country: Italy
Animal: Cow
Type: Semi-hard
Texture: Firm
Rind: Edible
Style: Nutty, melty, complex
Gorgonzola
Gorgonzola
Country: Italy
Animal: Cow
Type: Soft
Texture: Crumbly
Rind: Edible
Style: Sharp, nutty
Recipe Ideas
Service
Which glasses?
Go with large Bordeuax glasses if you have them, otherwise all-purpose works just fine.
Should I decant this?
Why "Couldn't hurt"?
Full bodied and lush, Barbera of this quality will express better after some oxygen exposure. We found the secondary herbaceous notes really came out after about 20 minutes in the glass. Not essential but if you don’t decant you’ll notice the last glass being better than the first.
How long?
Generally you would want to decant a younger wine for longer to help it open up and be cautious of exposing older wines to oxygen for too long. There are always exceptions of course, but this is a pretty good rule to follow.
Serving Temp
The correct serving temperature is important to show a wine’s true potential, but don’t stress over getting the temp exactly right. Use the chart below to try to get in the right ballpark.
Aging
When should I open this?
If a wine has been released by the producer and is available for sale, it means it is ready to drink. Wines don’t necessarily get “better” with age, they just change. Typically, this change involves things like losing fresh fruit flavors in exchange for more savory notes.
The moment you should open the bottle depends on your preference, so it’s more important to understand the evolution and the life span of the bottle than it is to try to time its opening perfectly. (It’s far better to open a bottle too early than too late.)
This bottle should probably be opened between:
2025 – 2033
Producer
ABOUT US
About Val del Prete
Cascina Val Del Prete is a leading grower in Roero, recognized for a commitment to natural farming and for traditional work in the cellar, utilizing techniques such as long maceration.
This type of farming and cellar work requires incredible commitment, but the resulting wines achieve another level of detail and age-worthiness that is quite simply lost or minimized with more modern techniques that tend to rush processes along. 20 to 30 years ago the family was chastised by their neighbors for their painstaking approach – today, some of the most respected names in Piedmont and of the “terroir driven,” wine scene speak highly of their work.
