
2010
Region
Italy › Piedmont › Asti › Barbera d'Asti DOCG
Type
red · still
Grapes
Barbera
Alcohol
16%
Volume
1500 mL
Barbera with weight to spare - 16% on the label - but with a steak on the fire it's just right. Still young, still asking for time. Cherry, chocolate, medicinal herbs, liquorice, red apple. Distinctly Barbera; despite the alcohol, it drinks pleasantly. Good tannin, relatively fresh. Properly fun.
Bricco dell'Uccellone is the wine that put Barbera on the international map. First vintage 1982; vineyard in Rocchetta Tanaro planted 1972. 100% Barbera from a single south-facing hillside cru.
The name comes from a local woman who lived next to the parcel - dressed always in black, with a nose villagers compared to a bird's beak; they nicknamed her 'l'Uccellone' (Piedmontese: 'the big bird'). Giacomo Bologna borrowed the moniker for his wine.
Vinification: hand-harvested, ~20 days temperature-controlled maceration on skins, aged in French oak barriques (225L) - the small-oak innovation that became the modern Barbera template. Modern spec is roughly 12 months in barrique plus 12 months in bottle before release.
2010 was a classic Piedmont vintage; magnum format extends the drinking window further still. Read in 2026, Barbera in this format and from this site should be in its first plateau of maturity, with a long road still ahead.