History
Barbera is believed to have originated in the hills of Monferrato in central Piemonte, Italy where it has been known from the thirteenth century. Documents from the cathedral of Casale Monferrato between 1246-1277 detail leasing agreements of vineyard lands planted with "de bonis vitibus barbexinis" or Barbera, as it was known then. However, one ampelographer, Pierre Viala, speculates that Barbera originated in the Lombardy region of Oltrepò Pavese. In the 19th and 20th century, waves of Italian immigrants brought Barbera to the Americas where the vine took root in California and Argentina among other places. Recent DNA evidence suggest that Barbera may be related to the French-Spanish vine Mourvedre. In 1985, the Piedmont region was rocked by a scandal involving Barbera producers illegally adding methanol to their wines, killing over 30 people and causing many more to lose their sight. The bad press and publicity saw a steady decline in Barbera sales and plantings, allowing the grape to be eclipsed by the Montepulciano grape as Italy's second most widely planted red grape variety in the late 1990s.
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