| Winery: | |
| Location: | La Morra, Langhe (Piemonte) Italy |
| Wine : | 2004 Tenuta L’Illuminata Colbertina - Barbera d’Alba |
| Appellation : | Barbera d’Alba DOCG |
| Price : | ~$30 retail (Imported by Blavod / Sapphire Brands) |
| Color : | Deep Claret. Translucent ruby, to slight orange. Pleases the Eye, giant Legs, viscous. |
| Nose: | Crushed Currant, juniper, orange peel, pepper, salumi. Black-cherry. Musty, fresh-dug earth. Earthy – espresso & chocolate |
| Palate / Balance / Flavors: | Unripe raspberries and cherries. Herbal, camphor, dried-fruit, citrus. Acidity higher, tannins lower than the balance we are used to in California. Cleansing acidity. Raspberry & plum. Long finish, slight back-palate bitterness. Cleansing acidity – would be an excellent wine with food. Paired with the right meat, something with a high fat content, this wine would show well, (Lamb, duck confit?) |
| Style: | This is definitely a wine that is balanced toward the herbal and earthy as opposed to overt fruit – it is lean, a bit racy, and moderate in tannin. Appropriately earthy for a wine from a region famous for wild truffles! The fruit character that is present seems like dried strawberry & slightly unripe raspberry. Definitely opens to more floral, rose-like aromas with some air. A well-made wine, it will shine at the table without overwhelming the food. It is nice to taste something that is so clearly not of the California mold. -NRC |
| Analysis: | 13.76% alcohol, 3.24 pH, 7.3 TA, 0.00 g/l RS, 0.00 g/l ML, 0.073 g/100ml VA |
| Comments: | Barbera tends to be a fairly high-acid grape variety – there is not much of it here in California, but it does well in hot areas that tend to shed acid. Barbera a moderately deep-colored variety, but can be very aromatic and long-lived. |
We started having ‘Brown Bag Fridays’ at work – this is a tradition that I am borrowing from Edna Valley Vineyards. The idea is to bring in a few wines, from anywhere in the world, stick them in a brown bag so that they are not visible to anyone, and leave them open so that members of the winery team can taste them throughout the day and offer notes on aroma and style of the wine, as well as venture guesses as to the origin of the wine. At the end of the day, the bottle is revealed to all, (I think that EVV used to give out a prize if anyone guessed the variety and region correctly, but we haven’t developed this that far yet.) The comments are a composite of all the tasters, (though style comment is my own.)
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