Wow! It's easy to say that this was the most delicious and well-made Barbera I've ever had. Decanted a few hours in advance, this was full of purple and black fruits, graphite, smoke, and tar. The structure was fantastic, with the tannins and acid in near-perfect balance. This is not your typical "pizza wine" Barbera; we enjoyed it with agnolotti del plin. For those of you holding onto this, I'd suggest that it isn't likely to get better than this. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

This was corked, but I feel I owe it a tasting note anyway. I had a bottle of this wine about a year ago at Babbo in New York. It was delicious and in perfect harmony at the time, with a bouquet of damp forest floor and woody mushrooms that went perfectly with--what else--a pasta dish with mushrooms. When I first opened the corked bottle, some heavy VA masked the TCA and I was able to taste some sweet tar, cherries, and flowers. Too bad it was corked, because I love this wine. NOT RATED.

This bottle was even better than the last. Everything was perfectly in balance, from the bouquet right on through to the finish. In addition to the aromas and flavors I reported in my previous tasting note, this time I got wonderful notes of dark chocolate and mocha on the palate. A recent tasting note for the Pian del Ciampolo said Montevertine was "overpriced for standard Chianti." My response is that Montevertine is anything but standard, and anything but Chianti. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.