Nizza Pomorosso: Coppo's Flagship Barbera
Named for the apple tree on the hill where it grows
Il Vino Bello ·
There is a red apple tree on top of the hill where these vines grow. That is where Nizza Pomorosso gets its name. It is Coppo's most prestigious expression of Barbera, made under the Nizza DOCG, the appellation carved out specifically to give the grape room to be taken seriously.
In the glass: an intense ruby red. The nose leads with the red fruit you would expect from Barbera, but it is the second layer that makes the wine: a touch of cocoa bean and a cool, balsamic note of eucalyptus running underneath. On the palate it is rich and dense, built for length rather than immediacy, with the fruit and that same balsamic thread carrying through to a long, harmonious finish.
By Coppo's own account, Pomorosso was one of the wines that helped push Barbera from everyday table wine toward something capable of real structure and ageing, worth keeping in mind next time Barbera gets dismissed as the simple grape of the family Sunday table.
How to actually drink it. Nizza DOCG requires at least eighteen months of ageing before release, six of them in wood, so a bottle like this is already built to last. Give it a proper decant, an hour is not excessive for a wine this dense, and serve it a touch below room temperature, around 16 to 18°C: too warm and the alcohol and dark fruit start to dominate the balsamic lift that makes it interesting. Reach for a large-bowled glass, Burgundy-style rather than a narrow tulip, to give the aromatics room to open. At the table, this is a wine for braised or roasted meat with real fat to it: brasato al Barolo (yes, made with a different wine but no less at home next to one), a short rib, or a wedge of aged Castelmagno. Structured Barbera like this rewards patience in the cellar too. Five to ten years in bottle is a realistic window for a wine of this seriousness to keep developing rather than just holding steady.