Community Tasting Notes 3

• DaveZack wrote: 87 points

  June 26, 2011 - Got this wine from the winery's tasting room for $38 on our September '09 trip to Paso.
  Bella Luna sources the grapes for this wine from Ron Siletto's San Benito vineyard (about 40 to 50 miles north of Paso and bit more inland).
  Up-front admission: I knew this wine was going to be too young to enjoy, but with difficult/finicky dinner mates (Arthur in particular), there weren't a lot of other choices to pair with an onions, peppers, and sausage ragu.
  The bouquet for this wine is extremely revealing. Sometimes a wine's bouquet can beguile you into thinking it's going to taste like something it never in a million years can/could/would/should ever hope to taste like. And then sometimes a wine's aromoa tells you EXACTLY what you're about to drink. Such is the case with this bottle.
  The bouquet reveals tart cherries, cream, and a bit of earth and oak.
  Surprise, surprise: the bouquet just showed its hand at the poker table! There are red and black fruits up front (sour cherries, raspberries, and plums), spices (black pepper and savory herbs like sage (and rosemarry?)), followed by typically-Italian tannins (which in this version are wonderfully smooth and supple), earth, and oak. This is a nicely creamy Italian red and is very well-balanced. The label shows 14.7% alcohol but you'd never guess it; I would have guessed around 13.5%. The wine went very well with the pasta and will continue to age and mature for many more years (10 to 20?). I wish we had let this bottle age for at least another 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 years. In 10 years this wine will probably be a 90-pointer or higher. Right now, I'm scoring this an 87 with the caveat that this wine has fantastic potential down the road.

  Comment

• Sakas wrote: 86 points

  September 11, 2010 - This bottle was a bit of a disappointment. Perhaps the wine is just at an awkward stage? Seems a little hot and lacking purity of fruit and mid-palate interest i remember. I prefer the Chumeia Barbera to this.

  Comment

• samiamx_1999 wrote: 91 points

  June 3, 2010 - Really nice. Lush red fruit. Medium weight. Good mouth feel.

  Comment

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Wine Definition

• Vintage 2007
• Type Red
• Producer Bella Luna
• Varietal Barbera
• Designation Lot One
• Vineyard n/a
• Country USA
• Region California
• SubRegion Central Coast
• Appellation San Benito County

Community Holdings

• Pending Delivery 0 (0%)
• In Cellars 7 (32%)
• Consumed 15 (68%)

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