To the right of the Tanaro, immediately facing the first hills of the Roero, is the small area of Barbaresco: three villages (Barbaresco, Neive and Treiso) and the hamlet of San Rocco Seno d'Elvio in the city of Alba. Here too the Nebbiolo has its special cradle, a large hilly area of about 700 hectares where this aristocratic vine gives the Barbaresco, one of the greatest red wines in the whole world.
Here the long hill dominates, with steepness that becomes accentuated as the altitudes rise. The valleys become narrower and Nebbiolo must be grown only on the sunniest areas, as the Barbaresco Disciplinary says, on the east, south and west sides.
Elsewhere, there are other varieties that complete the appearance of the vineyard: two with black fruit, Barbera and Dolcetto, and then Moscato, the most cultivated white grape, followed by Chardonnay, which here has filled the gap of a white variety with a great wine vocation. There were no close ties with Arneis and Favorita and so, in the heart of the 1980s, the choices of the winemakers went to Chardonnay, reaffirming the parallelism that brings the hills of the Langhe closer to Wine Burgundy.
The hills of Barbaresco have compact soils and rather homogeneous with each other: only a deeper analysis can divide this area into two parts for the type of soil.
We remain in the Tertiary Era and the Miocene period, but the hills of the village of Barbaresco and those of Neive leaning against Barbaresco belong to the Tortonian, that is, they are made of bluish marl, very firm and compressed, which geologists define as Sant'Agata Fossils. Here the most structured and long-lived Barbaresco wines are produced.
In the remaining area (all of Treiso and San Rocco Seno d'Elvio and the part of Neive that goes towards the Moscato di Mango and Castiglione Tinella area) the soils are still marly, but the reference is to the Tortonian-Serravallian, with the so-called Lequio Formations, where the gray marls are often interspersed with sands. So, less structured and compact soils, where wines of lesser power are produced, but with great olfactory richness and marked harmonies.
