6/22/2020 - Derek Darth Taster wrote:

At home. Late night after blackout. Drank in Gabriel Standart.
Appearance is clear, pale intensity, ruby colour. Legs.
Nose is clean medium+ intensity, initial reduction stink blew off, showing aromas of violets, sweet tar, sour red cherries, fresh red plum. Youthful.
On the palate, dry, high acidity, medium+ alcohol (14%), sticky high tannins, medium+ body. Medium+ flavour intensity, with flavours of sour red cherries, raspberries, sweet red plum, herbal thyme and mint, licorice, bitter-sweet tar earth towards the finish. Medium finish.
Good quality. Nothing really profound here. Balance not quite achieved in these young vines yet. Tannins stick out, fruits present but not enough depth of substance, and that bitterness going to the finish. Then with air, this actually improves up. Tannins still prominent, but the rest of the palate seems to integrate into a more wholesome picture. May be this wine could actually surprise a little over the next 3+ years of age.
15 year old young vines from the Basarin cru in the commune of Neive.

9/18/2021 - Vera Wind Likes this wine:

Lovely Pinot noir, as usual.

3/20/2020 - fhayek wrote:

Diffcult one to rate for me. 21 EUR at German wine merchant.

Scent: like a good Bordeaux. Underwood, cigar box, chestnut even.

Taste: A lot of (quality) wood. It has depth, intensity, structure. So spicy it reminds me actually of a certain style of shiraz. The aftertaste is so polished it's almost lame a bit, very soft on the back.

Have been drinking quite a lot of it now but still don't know if I like it that much. On one hand, it ticks a lot of boxes and a certain quality is undeniable. On the other, it relies a bit too much on the oak and I'm not sure Barbera is supposed to taste like this.

I might be wrong here but it feels like this is an attempt - not a bad one - to produce a kind of generic prestige wine for those who are accustomed to new world wines.

All in all, I guess this will be very satisfying to non-nerds and new-world fans. The rest might feel 21 EUR is too much for it.

10/13/2016 - fhayek Does not like this wine:

Tried this in a wine bar after 6 red wines, which might have blurred my palate.

Anyway, this stroke me as off-balance, unfocussed and also with pronounced volatile acid problems. So no thumbs up there.

6/14/2015 - Vertigo wrote:

This bottle was nothing compared to my last bottle which was a great positive surprise. This time the wine was very powerful but more one-dimensional. Bottle variation???

9/18/2015 - henrygjeffreys Likes this wine:

Grassy nose
GRassy lean style, ripe fruit but light
Elegant, a wine which becomes more interesting with each sip
Good stuff, not cheap £16.95

10/18/2012 - fhayek wrote:

40 euros (ouch!).
And... well past its prime. Nothing disturbing there but rather hollow.