2015 La Carlina Barbera d’Asti DOCG, Piedmont, Italy

Score: 86/100

Score 86/100

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, while the wine was fermented and aged in stainless steel tanks for about 7 months.

Tasting Notes

This Italian Barbera comes in a bright and rather intense cherry-red color. Nothing hugely dense, but yes, quite dark to the core. Nice and clean.

The nose is upfront fruity, with acidic red berry aromas filling up the glass and hitting your taste buds with liveliness. The wine smells very youthful at this stage (it is a very young wine) and benefits from some time opening up in the glass.

Spices and herbs provides some depth and complexity: laurel leaves and black pepper are among those.

On the palate, acidity sets the tone and underlines the vibrant berry flavors. A clear effervescence in the mouth highlights the presence of residual dissolved CO2 in the wine. This lifts up the acidity and the freshness of the wine, but is a little disturbing to the trained palate. Decant the wine 1 hour prior to tasting to, as already mentioned for the nose descriptions, open it up and get read of the CO2.

Once settled in with some aeration, the wine is actually vibrant and filled with lively berry flavors, some citrus characters in there too made more obvious by the petillance, like in a sparkling lemon juice.

Tannins are relatively smooth and well integrated.

Overall

A Barbera wine filled with liveliness and upfront berry characters. Some depth and complexity provided with a few layers of herbal and spicy tones add to the experience.

A wine to match with food it is, its mineral acidity as well as its aromatic freshness will cut through rich dishes, and provide a touch of welcome chili-like spiciness.

Enjoy