I’ve had a lucky streak with barbera. Three standout glasses of this Italian-native varietal from two very different places made a recent impression on me; the samples I drank on a recent trip to the Sierra Foothills helped redeem an entire wine region. And unlike in “Goldilocks” no personal property was vandalized in my pursuit of satisfaction.

For my list, starting at the bottom with a rich red with roasted coffee notes, click here:

#3: This Barbera Was Almost Too Big!
Montevina, Barbera “Terra d’Oro” 2005 ($18/bottle)
I was about to give up on all the wines coming from California’s Gold Country when I stumbled upon this nugget. But after many thin merlots, tannic zinfandels, and the vegetal cabernets, I found myself in the presence of a soft, pure 24 karat red! I enjoyed a glass of the Terra d’Oro at V, a very satisfying bistro-style restaurant in the otherwise painfully-cute town of Murphys, California. Montevina’s barbera successfully handled the notorious heat of the Sierra Foothills; it was big, rich, even hedonistic, but held up by a decent backbone of tannins and gentle acids. It had some complexity, too: I got roasted coffee along with loads of cassis, blackberry, and plum fruit flavors. Good finish. Inky-colored. This creative winery experiments wildly, er, widely with Italian varieties, hence the barbera, which is native to Piedmont.

#2: This Barbera Was Almost too Small!
C.G. di Arie Barbera Amador County 2006 ($22/bottle)
Although di Arie’s barbera wasn’t as luscious as Montevina’s it held my attention because its style harked back, I thought, more to its cousins from Italy, like Barbera d’Alba or d’Asti. It was lighter in structure, though still carmine in color. It was a less overpowering with food — I enjoyed it with a hearty duck breast at the friendly dining room at the Imperial Hotel in Amador City — and most of all showed a distinctive earthy note that made it seem more European.

The Best: This Barbera Was Just Right!
Vigneti Massa “Terra” Piedmont, Italy 2001 ($20/bottle)
Sure, this wine had an unfair advantage in that it hails from barbera’s native land, in this case from the eastern corner of Piedmont near Lombardy. But for a real Italian barbera at this price, I thought it was great! Perfect balance, utterly dry, but with a mouth-watering acidity that kept all its fruit flavors alive and vivid on the palate. An extra long finish. But most noteworthy was the distinctive note of tapenade, which made it just delicious to drink along with Absinthe’s grilled redfish on a bed of greens, chickpeas, and cerignola olives.