2014 Roberto Ferraris Barbera d'Asti 750 ml

50-Year-Old-Vine Barbera d’Asti … and Signora Ferraris’ Gnocchi

It’s said that the olfactory is the sense most closely tied to memory. Maybe that’s why we’ll never forget the gnocchi, the olio, the Reggiano — or even the basketball rim that was 6 inches too high.

We left Monforte d’Alba last August at 9:30 a.m., took the turnoff towards Asti at 10:30, then slalomed our way through the verdant hillsides en route to Agliano Terme. By the time we pulled into the dusty driveway, it was almost noon. We smelled the gnocchi almost as soon as we stepped out of the car. The first course was already on the table.

As always in Italy, the simplest cuisine is the best. The gnocchi was handmade. The olives were homegrown, the olio recently cold-pressed. The herbs came from the garden behind the whitewashed courtyard. The massive hunk of Parmigiano-Reggiano was old and crusty, now freshly grated.

The wine we were served in oversized Riedel greeted us with aromas of black cherry preserves, dark plum, a faint touch of cedar. It was black — not ruby, not purple, BLACK — far deeper than anything we’d seen after a week of cellar-hopping in Barolo. The attack was luscious, as purely hedonistic as any European red — juicy black fruit to the core, all buttressed by refreshing ancient-vine acidity. Roberto Ferraris’ Barbera d’Asti sliced through the gnocchi, olive oil, and Parmesan like a stiletto.

After lunch, we were feeling little pain. Roberto led us around the hillside bowl to the steep, south-facing incline on which he grows what many believe to be the most luscious Barbera in Piedmont. The sun is hot in Asti, Ferraris explained, baking the 50-year-old plants. The old vines have deep root structures that burrow deep into the clay-sand substrata, allowing them to shrug off the summer heat and quench their thirst on the winter rain.

During an unfair game of H-O-R-S-E, played in the courtyard on a basket that’s a half-foot too high, we asked Roberto about the intensely concentrated makeup of this 2014. Roberto couldn’t help but grin after swishing another 18-footer. “2014 was warm, and when it’s hot in Asti, the Barbera isn’t purple — it’s BLACK!”

The 2014 Roberto Ferraris Barbera d’Asti is that. Not ruby. Not purple. Black. Voluptuous aromas of black cherry preserves, dark plum, and sweet herbs. Plush and juicy on the attack, the vintage’s opulence is nonetheless perfectly braced by Barbera’s firm natural acidity. Drink now-2022.

480 bottles just hit port. $22 on release. $15 today. Shipping included on 6.