Score: 89/100
This Barbera d’Asti DOCG wine by La Carlina, is quite obviously made from 100% Barbera grapes grown on clayey-calcareous and calcareous-siliceous soils near Bionzo in the province of Costigliole d’Asti, Piedmont, Italy.
Grapes were 100% hand-picked in small cases. The wine was the fermented in stainless steel tanks before 8 months of maturing in Slovanian oak casks (3,000-litre ones). Finally, it spent another 2 months in steel tanks at controlled temperature (18°c) and 4 months in bottle (14,5°C) before release.
Tasting Notes
This North-Italian Barbera comes in a rather dark red color, quite black to the core, a bright yet dark red with purples hues intensifying it to the rim.
The nose feels deep and serious, dominated by toasted notes of dark cocoa, coffee, and deep vanilla.
Some lively ripe red berries do populate the nose and lift the cheerfulness of the wine too, together with peppery spices.
The smell is overall intriguing, and a little on the shy side from what appears to be youth rather than lack of concentration. It smells concentrates and generous, but young, hence not giving away all it’s got to say in the aromas yet.
As soon as you put it in your mouth, the wine’s sensation strikes by its lively acidity that makes the red berry flavors shine brightly and freshly.
It also, with the support of velvety tannins and a touch of saltiness, make the wine feel very juicy and salivating. Like when you bite into a blueberry or other crisp fresh berry, it’s juicy, fresh and little savory although being feeling fruity as well.
But here there is plenty of coffee liqueur, and dark cocoa flavors as well, providing depth. Some ginger bread spices in here too amplifying the generosity.
Overall
A ripe and generous Barbera wine, juicy with a wealth of ripe berry fruity flavors, but also deep and quite complex from so much sweet spices of torrefaction notes.
Grippy velvety tannins and a salty feel make you salivate even more while the richness of the fruity characters delight.
A faceted wine then it is, full of interesting built-in personalities despite its young age.
Give it a year or two for it to soften up and open up a little further and this should be a very enjoyable fruit-driven food-friendly Barbera with plenty of depth to support ambitious pairings with fine tasty dishes.
Enjoy 🙂
Learn about the producing winery at Azienda Agricola La Carlina, Italy
La Carlina’s Wines have a cool logo featured on the wine’s capsules, check it out on Instagram:
Wine & Food Pairing?
Check Out our BBQ Drinks: Top 3 Tips for Pairing Wine with Barbecue to find out what Barbera wine goes well with.
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