Marchesi Alfieri La Tota Barbera d'Asti 2022 1500ml

Morello cherries, fresh bouquets and a touch of geraniums. Creamy tannins on the palate, with fleshy cherries and plums. Juicy, brambly and pristine medium-length finish. Drink now. ZEKUN SHUAI, jamessuckling.com

Ex-Col d'Orcia winemaker Mario Olivero has revitalised this historic estate. Superb vineyard, highly refined winemaking and total belief in Barbera are the keynotes. Alfiera is the splendid top wine. Look also for the super-value Barbera La Tota. DECANTER

If you haven't seen the La Tota before from us, then you must have been hiding under a rock. This is one of the region's benchmark producers of the varietal, and the La Tota always, always delivers. The team is led by the legendary Mario Olivero, who leaves nothing to chance in any of the wines he makes. That includes detailed winemaking and care in the vineyard right through to temperature and humidity control in the barrel room.

For a humble offering like the La Tota, that is an impressive way to make wine. For the La Tota, everything is hand-harvested, hand-sorted before gentle de-stemming, and softly crushed into temperature-controlled, steel tanks for fermentation. They see 12 - 15 days on skins with light pump-overs and rack and return to gently extract fine tannins, followed by one year in old French, 225 and 500 litre oak barrels. During this time, Mario uses an intricate system of sprinklers to control oxygen ingress in barrels by controlling moisture levels in the cellar and barrels. 

So inviting as always on the nose with a rich melange of black fruits, sweet spice swirling around the glass, and a gentle caress of dried herb. It lands with a fist-full of lush fruit, sweet and enticing, while a gentle grip from fine-cut, minerally tannins proved a fine structural network weaving elegantly through the fruit. Round and mouth-filling but with a wonderful bounce and freshness that keeps you coming back for more. What a ripper!