TENUTA MIGLIAVACCA
Barbera del Monferrato 2025
Piedmont, Italy
Barbera from vines up to sixty years old planted over clay and sandy marl. The grapes were destemmed, and the wine fermented on the skins for a fortnight before being pressed to large oak casks until spring. This is textbook Barbera, plush with fruit black and blue, and awash with the kind of cleansing acidity that makes it the perfect foil to the kind of rich, robust dishes you find in Piedmont’s hills.
Barbera
ABOUT THE PRODUCER
Tenuta Migliavacca was founded by Francesco Brezza’s grandfather in 1921, though grapes have been grown here since the early 1700s. The farm has always been known for the high quality of its sfuso, which was sold in demijohns to clients all over Italy and often exchanged for the chestnut wood used to make the large casks in which the wines are stored.
By the 1960s, Francesco’s father Luigi was at the helm. Like many farmers, he was encouraged to introduce systemic products to make work in the fields more efficient, but having quickly noticed a decline in the health of the soil, vines and those who worked amongst them, he returned to organic farming and began searching for something more.
A true pioneer, Luigi was amongst the first in Italy to apply biodynamics at a time when it was almost unheard of in these parts. By the mid-sixties he’d begun turning the farm into a place of entirely self-sufficient, closed-loop agriculture, introducing a few dozen cows for grazing, and sowing a wide variety of grains. In 1972 he obtained Demeter certification, making Migliavacca the first winery in Italy to do so, and in leading the way, he became a mentor for others who’d follow a similar path, including a young Stefano Bellotti of Cascina degli Ulivi.
Today Francesco continues his father’s legacy, working in the same spirit whilst responding to the changing needs of the vines in an era of climate change. Biodiversity is key, and of the farm’s fifty hectares, only ten are planted to vine, with the remainder kept as forest and open fields for cows and crops, or used for beekeeping and vegetable gardens.
In the vineyards, they work almost entirely by hand, with a focus on soil health, in order to produce the kind of grapes needed to make wines which seek to nourish as much as they do please.
These are wines that capture the essence of vino da tavola – they are decidedly old-fashioned, pure, wholesome and full of charm.