Score: 88/100
This D.O.C. wine from Bruno Rocca is made from 100% Barbera grapes coming from the village of Vaglio Serra.
This is obviously from the Piedmont (or Piemonte) region of Northern Italy.
Soils there are filled with limestone, sand and red clay.
The wine was vinified in stainless steel tanks before being aged for 12 months in French oak barrels (barriques).
Tasting Notes:
This Barbera has a relatively light red color. It not light like a light Pinot, but there’s not a lot of black in the glass with some more tannic grapes like Cab for example.
The nose feels fresh dominated by acidic sour cherry aromas. Perhaps a few herbal grassy notes as well. Green pepper too. So it smells like acidic red berries, with an elegant vegetal background that spices and freshens it up. Enjoyable to smell and appealing thanks to its crispy aromatic fruitiness.
Palate if very well balanced, driven by a crisp but not aggressive acidity and a relatively light body. Tannins also quite light but important they are crisp, slightly grippy and feeling acidic on the finish, but again not aggressive. Some vegetal bitterness on the finish gives an irony mineral feel (like after eating rich green salad, or baby spinach, a chlorophyll sort of feel!).
Like on the nose, plenty of red berry flavors dominate the palate, spiced up by clove and cumin.
Overall
An expressive and characterful wine bursting with enjoyable acidity, fresh red berry flavors, and many layers of herbal spices.
Fairly light in body, yet with grippy tannins on the finish.
Despite the overall relative freshness and lightness feel, it is very long and does also feel concentrated. Delightful minerality fills the wine with plenty of personality.
See this Barbera wine in action with the following Slo-Motion Swirling Video:
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