Long before anyone else thought Barbera deserved serious treatment, Scarpa did. The house has been around for more than 170 years, and back in the 1960s -- when Barbera was Piedmont's everyday drinker, made to be thrown back young and cheap -- Scarpa was already building versions meant to age. Briccomora comes from the I Bricchi estate, on the border between Castel Rocchero and Acqui, and it is pure Barbera: bright cherry and plum, a floral lift, and the grape's trademark blade of acidity holding everything upright. What sets it apart is the polish. The tannins are fine, the finish is long, and none of the rustic edge Barbera sometimes carries makes it into the glass. Piedmont's workhorse grape, treated like it matters.