Anniversary Tasting (Chicago Wine - Glenview IL): Walk around tasting. Reduction made this to fairly assess, but there is a lot of pure black cherry here with impressive weight for young Barbera, so I am optimistic.
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The '20 Barbera Francia is a delicious young wine, but I find it lacks finesse and the level of alcohol is distracting. As such, it's a wine I would rate much higher for enjoying a single glass of than drinking a full bottle of, at least at this stage.
On the nose, I found juicy black cherry, lavender, and sweet spices, beautifully aromatic and with great purity of flavor. On the palate, I found a similar flavor expression, while the texture of the wine is full-bodied with high acidity, almost overwhelming. That said, it is quite smooth, and with food it is quite drinkable already. I do find this sort of alcoholic heat on the back end of the palate and I find that given that and the level of concentration, the wine is tiring as you move beyond a single glass.
Note that I am simply not a big fan of barbera, especially in hotter vintages, and I find myself to be rather sensitive to alcohol levels in wine when they hit 15%+. This is a well made example of Barbera.
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Initially very pure berry-driven profile, backed up by pronounced acidity. As the temperature rose, more sous bois and pine aromas emerged, alongside vanilla and plums.
This became increasingly less fun to drink, a bit disjointed at this early stage. I hope it comes more together with bottle age, for now I felt too much oak extraction and also the 15.5%.
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9/9/2023 - Burgundy Al wrote:
Anniversary Tasting (Chicago Wine - Glenview IL): Walk around tasting. Reduction made this to fairly assess, but there is a lot of pure black cherry here with impressive weight for young Barbera, so I am optimistic.
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4/19/2023 - Robmcl920 wrote: 90 Points
The '20 Barbera Francia is a delicious young wine, but I find it lacks finesse and the level of alcohol is distracting. As such, it's a wine I would rate much higher for enjoying a single glass of than drinking a full bottle of, at least at this stage.
On the nose, I found juicy black cherry, lavender, and sweet spices, beautifully aromatic and with great purity of flavor. On the palate, I found a similar flavor expression, while the texture of the wine is full-bodied with high acidity, almost overwhelming. That said, it is quite smooth, and with food it is quite drinkable already. I do find this sort of alcoholic heat on the back end of the palate and I find that given that and the level of concentration, the wine is tiring as you move beyond a single glass.
Note that I am simply not a big fan of barbera, especially in hotter vintages, and I find myself to be rather sensitive to alcohol levels in wine when they hit 15%+. This is a well made example of Barbera.
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12/13/2022 - Hugo Hilde wrote:
PnP, followed over three days
Initially very pure berry-driven profile, backed up by pronounced acidity. As the temperature rose, more sous bois and pine aromas emerged, alongside vanilla and plums.
This became increasingly less fun to drink, a bit disjointed at this early stage. I hope it comes more together with bottle age, for now I felt too much oak extraction and also the 15.5%.
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