DOCG Red Brand label

Giordano Barbera d'Asti

A brand of Giordano Vini, not an estate

Grape
Barbera
Denomination
Barbera d'Asti DOCG
Region
Piedmont
Drink
Now to 2026

A 2006 Barbera d'Asti from Giordano, the Diano d'Alba mail-order house founded in 1900. Twenty years on it is dried cherry, tar and leather over Barbera's fresh acidity, shipped in a silk-lined wooden gift box: a ready-made birth-year present.

Price
£59.97

2006 · 75cl · checked 20 Oct · Delivery £7.99, free on 2 bottles

Prices read daily from 1 UK retailer. We earn a commission on some links; it never changes the order.

Where to buy Giordano Barbera d'Asti

£59.97 price · 1 retailer in stock · checked 20 Oct 2026

One shop sells this wine in the UK, so there is no price to compare between shops. Each price is the one on its page today, read daily.

Vintage Wine Gifts Best price 2006 · 75cl · checked 20 Oct · Delivery £7.99, free on 2 bottles
Read from the retailer's page once a day. Confidence is low, so treat it as a guide and confirm at the retailer.
£59.97 £79.96/L

Stock status is read from each retailer’s page once a day and may lag.

Tasting Notes

Tasting Giordano's Barbera d'Asti 2006 at twenty years old

Giordano's scheda for this label promises blackberry and wood balsam from oak-cask ageing. The 2006 adds earthiness, tar and sweet dark fruit on a medium-bodied frame, with red cherry and oak behind. At twenty years the fruit sits in its dried-cherry and leather stage, carried by Barbera's acidity.

Tasted by
ItalianWines editorial
Tasted on
21 July 2026
Vintage in glass
2006
Source
Drinker consensus · confidence Medium
Typical of Barbera
Body Light / Full
Tannins Smooth / Grippy
Sweetness Dry / Sweet
Acidity Soft / Crisp
Nose

Mature Barbera aromatics in the register Giordano's oak-cask ageing sets for this label. Blackberry and wood balsam on the house scheda, now shaded towards dried black cherry, with an earthy, tarry edge. The oak note sits behind the fruit rather than on top of it.

Black cherryBlack cherry
BlackberryBlackberry
CherryCherry
TarTar
LeatherLeather
OakOak
Palate

Medium-bodied, the sweet dark fruit now largely dried to cherry skins and plum. Barbera's naturally high acidity and gentle tannin still carry the wine, Giordano's acid-soft balance tilted savoury by twenty years in bottle. Expect bottle variation at this age: the structure, not the fruit, does the work.

Finish

Good length for the level, closing on tar, leather and a balsamic echo rather than fresh fruit.

Overall

Fully mature and ready now, a gift-boxed curiosity from a mail-order cellar rather than a fine-wine buy. For a 2006 birthday or anniversary bottle it does exactly what is asked; open it on the night.

Drink now Best by 2026
Live UK pricing

Buying the 2006: one UK listing, boxed for gifting

Vintage Wine Gifts holds the sole tracked UK listing at £59.97. It ships in a silk-lined wooden presentation box with corkscrew, pourer, drip stopper and thermometer plus a personalised gift card. For a 2006 birthday or anniversary the year on the label is the purchase; the wine inside is the bonus.

Best price · 75 cl £59.97 at Vintage Wine Gifts
Only sold by Vintage Wine Gifts The only UK shop we track for this wine, so there is no price to compare
Vintages live 2006 Current release: 2006
Per-litre (75 cl basis) £79.96 Per-litre price for the lowest current offer
Last checked 20 Oct 2026 Refreshed once every 24 hours
Wine fit score

Where Giordano's 2006 Barbera d'Asti fits

The scores below describe a fully mature, gift-boxed Barbera d'Asti: strong for a 2006-year occasion, weak for cellaring or everyday drinking at £59.97.

Best for an occasion 9.2/10

A 2006 birth-year or anniversary present, shipped in a silk-lined wooden box with a personalised card: the exact job this bottle exists for.

Best with food 8.2/10

High natural acidity and softened tannin make a versatile partner for Piedmont braises, porcini risotto and salumi, though the faded fruit rules out delicate or spicy food.

Best intro to this style 4.2/10

Barbera's low tannin keeps it approachable, but tar, leather and dried fruit are an acquired register, and a twenty-year-old bottle can vary cork to cork.

Best value 3.4/10

Giordano's current Barbera d'Asti release sells for 9.60 euros in Italy; £59.97 buys the surviving 2006 stock, the wooden gift box and the year on the label, not fine-wine substance.

Best for cellar 1.8/10

Past its 2012 peak and at the end of its 2008 to 2026 drinking window; buy it to open, not to lay down.

Best everyday bottle 1.2/10

A £59.97 single-listing gift bottle at the very end of its window is nobody's midweek wine; Giordano's current release does that job for a tenth of the price.

Scoring is rule-based and deterministic. The model and weightings are documented in our Wine Fit Score methodology.

Denomination Compliance Snapshot

Barbera d'Asti in five fields

A compact view of what the Barbera d'Asti denomination actually requires, and how this bottle sits inside it. Pulled from the official Italian disciplinare.

Allowed grapes
1 varieties listed
This bottle: Barbera.
Minimum ageing
4 months minimum
No oak ageing required.
Region / area
The province of Asti and part of the province of Alessandria: hillside sites only, on clay, silt, sand and limestone soils, mostly between 150 and 400 metres and never above 650; valley-floor, damp and poorly exposed land is excluded.
Source: Disciplinare.
Style
DOCG · Barbera d'Asti
Minimum ABV at this colour: 12.0%.
Classification
DOCG (Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita)
Vintages

2006 in Piedmont: an exceptional season, now fully mature

2006 was an exceptional Piedmont vintage, a cool season rescued by a golden September that gave ripe fruit with fresh acidity. Twenty years on this Barbera sits at the end of its 2008 to 2026 drinking window, past a 2012 peak. It is a bottle to open on arrival rather than lay down.

2006 Current release
Best price
£59.97
Retailers
1 in stock
Window
Drink now through 2026

An exceptional Piedmont vintage: a cool season saved by a golden September, giving ripe fruit with fresh acidity. Twenty years on this Barbera is fully mature, all dried cherry and leather. Drink now, not later.

Drink-now / hold guidance reflects general style cues for this wine, not a forecast for a specific bottle. Where vintage-level editorial notes exist, they appear above.

The disciplinare, the place, the label

Barbera d'Asti: DOC on this 2006 label, DOCG since 2008

This 2006 predates the appellation's promotion: Barbera d'Asti became DOCG only in 2008, so the label carries the older DOC wording. The rules centre on Barbera, the workhorse grape of the Asti hills. Its high natural acidity and gentle tannin are exactly what let a modest wine age into dried fruit and leather.

01

DOC, DOCG, IGT: what the badges mean

Italian wine law sorts bottles into a pyramid. DOCG sits at the top: tightly drawn boundaries, prescribed grapes, mandatory ageing, government tasting before release. DOC is the same idea with looser thresholds. IGT (Indicazione Geografica Tipica) is broader still, requiring only that 85% of the grapes come from the named territory.

Barbera d'Asti is in the DOCG tier. That is not a quality verdict, it is a description of how much freedom the producer has at vinification and ageing.

02

The denomination rules, in detail

  • Allowed grapes. 1 varieties listed in the disciplinare
  • Yield ceiling. 9.0 tonnes per hectare
  • Minimum ABV. 12.0% vol
  • Minimum ageing. 4 months total
  • Tasting panel. Mandatory pre-release tasting commission
03

Region and area context

Barbera d'Asti falls within Piedmont, covering The province of Asti and part of the province of Alessandria: hillside sites only, on clay, silt, sand and limestone soils, mostly between 150 and 400 metres and never above 650; valley-floor, damp and poorly exposed land is excluded.. The denomination is further divided into 2 sub-zones.

Wine appellations of Piedmont
04

Reading the label

  • BarberaGrape varieties
  • Barbera d'Asti DOCGGeographic indication and quality tier
  • 2006Vintage (year of harvest)
05

What sits behind the price of Giordano Barbera d'Asti

Tracked from
£59.97
Direction
Mostly cost up
Drivers
4 up / 1 down
Main factor
Scarcity of surviving 2006 stock
  1. 01

    Scarcity of surviving 2006 stock

    Cost up

    Giordano's Barbera d'Asti is made to drink young; twenty-year-old bottles that survived in sellable condition are rare, and the sole tracked UK listing prices that rarity at £59.97.

  2. 02

    Gift presentation included

    Cost up

    The listing ships in a silk-lined wooden presentation box with corkscrew, pourer, drip stopper and thermometer, valued at £17.99 by the retailer, plus a personalised gift card.

  3. 03

    Two decades of storage before sale

    Cost up

    A bottle from the 2006 harvest has carried twenty years of storage, handling and insurance cost before reaching the gift market; that holding cost sits inside every old-vintage price.

  4. 04

    UK duty and VAT at £59.97

    Cost up

    Still-wine duty of £2.67 plus VAT of about £10.00 at this price means roughly £12.67 of the £59.97 goes to tax before wine, box or storage.

  5. 05

    High-volume negociant base wine

    Cost down

    Giordano vinifies bought-in grapes at a roughly 20-million-bottle scale and lists the current release of this label at 9.60 euros. So the underlying wine, unlike an estate Barbera, adds little to the price.

01

Scarcity of surviving 2006 stock

Cost up

Giordano's Barbera d'Asti is made to drink young; twenty-year-old bottles that survived in sellable condition are rare, and the sole tracked UK listing prices that rarity at £59.97.

Perfect Pairings

Dishes that go with this wine

Food Pairing

Food for a twenty-year-old Barbera d'Asti

Giordano's own pairing card for this label reads bagna cauda, tripe and Piedmont braises. At twenty years the fruit has dried and the acidity remains, so brasato al Barolo, porcini risotto and truffled tajarin suit it far better than anything delicate, sweet or hot.

Acidity matching Strong match

Fresh Barbera acidity against Piedmont braises

Barbera keeps its signature high acidity even at twenty years, and Giordano's own pairing sheet for this label points to Piedmont braises. That acid lift cuts the gelatine and slow-cooked richness of brasato al Barolo where the wine's faded tannin no longer needs to.

Try with: brasato al Barolo · braised beef cheeks · oxtail stew · More pairings →

Aromatic bridge Strong match

Tar, leather and dried cherry meet porcini and truffle

The 2006's earthiness and tar sit in the same aromatic register as porcini and white truffle. A fully tertiary Barbera d'Asti echoes wild mushroom risotto and tajarin al tartufo instead of fighting them, an alliance young fruity reds cannot make.

Try with: porcini mushroom risotto · tajarin al tartufo · truffle risotto · More pairings →

Fat cutting Good match

Acidity that scrubs rich cheese and salumi

With tannin softened by two decades, the wine's cut comes entirely from acidity, which cleans the palate after fatty salumi and blue cheese. Giordano lists bagna cauda, another oil-rich Piedmont classic, on this label's own pairing card.

Try with: salumi board · gorgonzola, pear and walnut risotto · bagna cauda · More pairings →

Body matching Good match

Medium body beside Piedmont's filled pastas

The 2006 is medium-bodied with good length and balance, a scale that matches agnolotti del plin in butter and sage rather than a heavy roast. Neither wine nor dish outweighs the other, so the dried-cherry fruit stays audible.

Try with: agnolotti del plin · risotto alla Milanese · tajarin with butter and sage · More pairings →

Avoid Clash

Keep chilli heat away from twenty-year-old fruit

Capsaicin amplifies alcohol and strips what little fruit sweetness a 2006 Barbera has left, leaving only acid and dried-out structure. Hot dishes flatten a fragile mature wine that needs quiet food.

Skip with: hot chilli con carne · fiery Thai curries · sweet chilli stir-fries · Pairing guide →

Drinking + cellar

A birth-year bottle, not a cellar asset

Giordano sells around 20 million bottles a year and the current release of this Barbera lists at 9.60 euros in Italy. Surviving 2006 stock is scarce, but the scarcity buys sentiment rather than investment. Treat it as a 2006 birth-year or anniversary present to open, not a wine to trade or lay down.

Drinking window
2008 → 2026

Peak around 2012. Best in the years above; holds without falling over either side.

Decanting
30 minutes

A short splash decant softens the first-pour edge and opens the aromatics.

Serving temperature
16-18°C

Aim for the cooler end on a warm day; warmer end opens up more aromatics.

Cellar potential
Low

Past its 2012 peak and at the end of its 2008 to 2026 drinking window; buy it to open, not to lay down.

Buy now or wait?
Buy now

£59.97 for a 75cl bottle of the 2006, at Vintage Wine Gifts, is the best price we track, and we have no signal of further discounting.

Sources & trust

Sources behind this Giordano Barbera d'Asti page

Prices & stock

Read directly from each retailer’s public product page once a day. Last refresh: 20 Oct 2026, 02:53 BST. We do not hold stock and we do not accept payment for placement.

Confidence · High
Who owns this label

The name on the label is a brand of Giordano Vini, not the estate that grew the grapes. Giordano is the own label of Giordano Vini, a wine company in the Italian Wine Brands group that sells direct to homes and makes its wines with grapes and musts from a network of growers. How we tell estate, shop and brand labels apart.

Confidence · High
Tasting notes

Drawn from what drinkers consistently report on Vivino, summarised in our own words. A crowd read across many tasters, not a single critic. Drinkers score it 3.4 out of 5 from 116 ratings on Vivino.

Confidence · Medium
Appellation rules & ageing

From the official Italian disciplinare for this denomination, cross-checked against the Ministry of Agriculture register.

Confidence · High
Why it costs what it costs

Our reading of the price, drawn from the disciplinare, public UK duty rates, and typical landed-cost benchmarks. Not a quote from the producer or a retailer.

Confidence · Medium
Drink window & cellar potential

Style guidance for this kind of wine at this price point. Treat it as advice, not a forecast for the bottle in your hand.

Confidence · Medium
Related

Giordano's Barbera d'Asti across grape, region and appellation

Common Questions

Yes, but only just: this bottle sits at the very end of its 2008 to 2026 drinking window, past a 2012 peak. Expect a fully mature style of dried cherry, tar and leather held together by Barbera's acidity rather than fresh fruit. Condition varies bottle to bottle at this age, so open it rather than keep it.

Giordano Vini S.p.A., a mail-order wine house founded in 1900 at Valle Talloria di Diano d'Alba in Piedmont. Today it is part of the listed Italian Wine Brands group. It sells around 20 million bottles a year directly to customers across Europe, including the UK. This is a house label made from bought-in Barbera grapes, not a single-estate wine.

Stand the bottle upright for a day, pull the cork gently and pour carefully off any sediment. A brief decant for clarity is fine, but do not aerate it for hours. Giordano recommends 18 to 20C for this label. Drink it on the night it is opened, as mature Barbera fades fast.

That is its best use: 2006 marks a 20th birthday in 2026. The retailer ships the bottle in a silk-lined wooden presentation box with four accessories and a personalised gift card. It suits an anniversary or graduation year for the same reason. The point is the year on the label rather than collectable pedigree.

You are paying for twenty years of storage, the scarcity of surviving stock and the gift presentation, not for the base wine. Giordano lists the current release at 9.60 euros in Italy. UK still-wine duty of £2.67 plus VAT of about £10.00 account for roughly £12.67 of the price before any aged-stock premium.

Earthiness, tar and sweet dark fruit on a medium-bodied frame with good length. Giordano's oak-cask ageing shows as wood balsam and a background oak note. After twenty years the fruit reads as dried black cherry with leather rather than anything fresh.

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Giordano Barbera d'Asti