+MUST TRY+Castelvero Barbera
Italia: Piemonte (Monferrato Hills)
100% Barbera (red)
2007
89 pts
$10.00
This bright, fruity, light-to-medium body red from the Piedmont is not ordinarily my style, but I really like it. The color is a dark, ruby red. The aroma offers raspberry preserves (Jewel brand!), the kind my grandmother used to buy--and used to let me eat for breakfast, too, on toast with peanut butter. The taste profile is definitely fruit driven (red berries, raspberry and perhaps strawberry), and certainly not complex, but on the back end, I get some mocha that lingers nicely, and a fleeting hint of earth, along with a very chill dryness, smooth tannins. At twenty bucks I'd call this a decent wine but not a MUST TRY, but for ten bucks...it's a great value--and one definitely worth trying. Barbera is meant to be consumed not long after purchase, so if you buy a bottle, drink up. Cin, cin!
Il Pozzo Barbera D'Asti (by Il Pozzo Winery)
Italia: Piemonte (Rufina)
Barbera D'Asti (red)
2006
87 pts
$18.00
Bought this Italian red from Piedmont at the Munich Airport on our way home from Italy summer 2009. Learned later that the Barbera varietal is one of the oldest (13th Century) and the third most produced varietals in Italy (Sangiovese is first, of course, and Montepulciano second). It is intended to serve as the source for every day wine, as opposed to the more complex and long-lasting vinos. I liked this wine (a serviceable, pleasant Italian red), and if I could find it in the $10.00-$12.00 price range, I'd buy it, again. It's not a home run, though, not a MUST TRY, especially given my 12 Euro price tag. The color is a ruby red, so dark mid-glass that it's almost dark purple. Definitely taste dark berries, and cherries, too, but none of the vanilla and hints of oak the best of this wine is said to offer. It's a little thin for me, but a decent enough finish, with some lingering flavor. Okay, overall...but nothing to get too excited about.
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