I Vicini Barbera Rouge 2020

I Vicini Barbera Rouge 2020,

Jean-Yves Péron

This I Vicini Barbera is a great wine in every sense of the word. Long, very fruity, generous, deep, with superb acidity resulting from a moderately ripe harvest, it is both serious and joyful, wonderfully intense and concentrated. Finesse, minerality, tension, and a beautiful, intense and colorful red color: a superb example of what the Barbera grape variety can achieve, especially at altitude, as is the case here. Its 13.5% alcohol testifies to the desire not to exaggerate its richness and power: the average Barbera today is closer to 15%. The second most widely used red grape variety in Italy after Sangiovese, Barbera produces full-bodied, colorful wines with notes of red fruits. In 2017, Jean-Yves Péron decided to expand his range by sourcing organic grapes in the heart of Piedmont, Italy, in collaboration with his winemaker friends Paolo Angelino in Casale Monferrato and Giorgio Barbero in Asti. The result has been several vintages, including this 100% Barbera red, made from Paolo's grapes. The vines, around forty years old, grow on gray and white marl soils cultivated biodynamically. These are old, low-yielding vines, harvested by hand when slightly underripe to counterbalance the richness of the grape variety. Skin maceration, in pure carbonic mode without punching down, takes place over four weeks, using indigenous yeasts. I Vicini Barbera then ages for at least a year in 900-liter sandstone amphorae, which reinforces the wine's tension and minerality. No filtration, fining, or addition of sulfites.

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Jean-Yves Péron embodies the natural renaissance of the beautiful Savoyard vineyard, which has long suffered from a somewhat flimsy image, not taken seriously enough. Yet, what treasures its varied soils and numerous ancient grape varieties produce!
Near Conflans, in Albertville (Savoie), Jean-Yves Péron skillfully combines committed viticulture and merchant winemaking, both under the banner of nature and high-altitude organic vines. Initially destined for a career in biochemistry, he quickly became drawn to the vine and trained as an oenologist in Bordeaux. He learned his trade as a winemaker with Thierry Allemand in Cornas, then with Bruno Schueller in Alsace, before spending some time in New Zealand and the United States. Jean-Yves' current vineyard, one and a half hectares biodynamic since the beginning, is divided between Conflans, near Albertville, and Fréterive, a little further down in the Isère Valley. Made up of micro-plots of vines, it is staggered between 350 m and 550 m above sea level and is worked entirely by hand. His trading activity, which he began in 2011, allows him to buy the harvest from organic winemakers close to his home (such as Raphaël Marin and Adrien Dacquin). Also, the construction of a new winery in 2017 allows him to increase production and collaborate with winemakers from Northern Italy: Paolo Angelino in Casale Monferrato (Turin), Giorgio Barbero in Asti. This is a new dimension given to his work as a winemaker, allowing him to diversify the terroirs and deepen his experiences in winemaking and aging. Jean-Yves Péron's winemaking follows the principles of minimal intervention. On narrow and steep surfaces, his mountain vines receive no synthetic products, Jean-Yves preferring horsetail and nettle manure. The surrounding vegetation is very rich: it protects the vines and helps to strengthen them. The soils are grassed, mown and reworked with a pickaxe and winch. The harvest is entirely manual. Once vatted in whole bunches, the grapes, both red and white, undergo a semi-carbonic maceration which allows the extraction of fresh fruit aromas. This maceration time varies between five days and nine weeks depending on the vintage. The day before or two days before pressing, Jean-Yves performs foot-treading directly in the vat. After this fermentation, the musts are sent to barrels for aging on lees for twelve months in five hundred liter barrels of two or three wines (to limit the oaky sensation), followed by blending and resting in vats. No sulfites are added, or as little as possible, and the wines are not fined or filtered.