Barbera Wine is known to pair well with tomato-based mushroom dishes, but it can also be as finicky as Pinot Noir wine. Does this explain why the Amphora Barbera 2015 did not pair well with my spaghetti? 

The Amphora 2015 Barbera wine from Clarksburg was a little on the aged side when we drank it, and although Barberas are known to last for 2-4 years, we were not late in the game at all in 2023. This was a fabulous wine. The age was not the reason it didn’t pair well.

The thing about Barbera’s is they are low in tannins (a plus) yet sometimes high in acidity.

Surprisingly, I learned why this may not have paired well with my spaghetti. Although Barbera is known to pair well with pizza, tomato, and mushroom sauce, here is where I got tripped up. 

If I had either known about Barbera wines or read up on the tasting notes beforehand, I might have guessed to either (1) choose another wine or (2) eliminate some of the ingredients. 

I’m not sure if I was drinking wine while I was cooking as I normally do, but I forgot to add the red meat so I cooked it separately and added it to the ragu sauce after it was cooked. But adding the meat late in the game was not why it didn’t pair well with my spaghetti either.

Although the ragu sauce had mushrooms, at the last minute, I added a chopped red bell pepper. As I often work to perfect my ragu by first sauteeing onions, carrots, and celery, I replaced the celery with red peppers which inflamed my taste buds with the high acidity the character of this wine already had. Does this make sense? 

The high acidity in this wine that tagged along with the beautiful low tannins would have remained inconspicuous and bright throughout the meal, except that the added red peppers gave the acidity already in the wine a run for its money. The high acidity became too accelerated in the ragu sauce, and I bet it was the red peppers I added at the last minute. 

Although we are familiar with our grape varietals and roughly have a fair understanding of how to pair wine with our dishes, I’m learning to make sure to read the tasting notes if they are available. Pairing wines with food, especially fine-tasting wine you would normally love, can taste sour and unwelcoming with the wrong pairing.

The delightful pairing was the rice crispy milk chocolate bar that was more soothing yet subtle to our Amphora’s 2015 Barbera from Clarksburg. Would I pair this with dark chocolate? Probably not. 

That is how just a slight ingredient can throw off the wine and the reason why someone would say they do not like red wine. Maybe it was fine at the pour, but as the night went on, you just said to yourself there was something you didn’t like about that wine. (I often do this.)

The characteristics of the varietal (grapes) should be found in the tasting notes, which can be found on the back of the label or on the shelf right next to the bottle at the store. Costco sells a ton of wine not just for their below-average pricing, and I’m sure adding the tasting notes right next to the bottles they sell helps!

If you're cooking with strong-tasting ingredients, take notice of adjectives like acidity, fruits, dryness, full-bodied, etc. 

If Barbera is high in acidity, when you add more acidity to your plate even with adding one ingredient such as red bell pepper, you can offset the balance, which, in this case, the pairing was off.

Making the mistake of writing off this wine would be a travesty, however. The high acidity gives it just enough body to stand on its own, and the low tannins make it velvety smooth.

It was just fabulous.