Rubino di Cantavenna is a DOC in Italy's north-western Piedmont region. It covers red wines based on a blend of Barbera (75–90%) with Grignolino and Freisa (up to 25% individually or combined). The wines come from vineyards in the east of Piedmont, specifically the north-western corner of the Alessandria province, in the Monferrato hills. The communes permitted to produce Rubino di Cantavenna are Moncestino, Villamiroglio, Camino and Gabiano, which has its own DOC. The Cantavenna parish of Gabiano is technically the home of these red Rubino wines, hence the title.
A typical Rubino di Cantavenna wine is pale red in color with a lightly aromatic perfume of plums and cherries and a gently bitter finish. These are the trademark flavors of almost all Barbera from Piedmont, and of so many Italian reds in general.
The Rubino di Cantavenna title was created in January 1970, at the beginning of a period of feverish administration and classification by Piedmont's wine authorities, and has not been revised since (as of 2011). Production of these wines has significantly decreased over the past two decades, with more than half the annual output disappearing in the 1990s alone. With competition from varietals made for the international market, compounded by the increasing prestige of such names as Barolo and Barbaresco, smaller DOCs such as Rubino di Cantavenna are inevitably affected.
