Community Tasting Note

forceberry wrote:

Wednesday, March 15, 2017 - Tasted blind along with 2013 Dolcetto, 2013 Freisa and 2013 Nebbiolo in order to guess which one is which.

Very slightly translucent - almost opaque - black-red color with a hint of purple hue. The nose feels somewhat restrained and quite dark-toned with quite pure and fruity aromas of ripe dark fruits, sweet plums and a little bit of blackberries and a hint of black raspberries. The wine feels very juicy, lively and medium-bodied on the palate with vibrant and slightly sweet flavors of very ripe dark berries, crunchy red berries, some blackberry jam and a hint of almost overripe plums. The wine's structure is very typical of Barbera: the acidity is very high, lending much brightness to the crunchy character of the wine, whereas the tannins are very light and gentle. The finish is rich and ripe with very sweet fruit-forward flavors of plums, ripe blackberries, juicy black cherries, some brambly raspberry notes and a hint of earth.

I guessed the variety correct, and rather easily at that: all I had to do was to find the wine with no tannins. Pitted against three tannic varieties - Dolcetto, Freisa and Nebbiolo - it was pretty easy to spot the non-tannic cariety Barbera. All in all, this was a very classic Barbera: a straightforward, sweetly-fruited and acid-driven red wine that works very nicely and reliably as an everyday meal wine, but offers rather little of interest beyond that. Among these four Burlotto wines, this was my least favorite - not meaning that this wine was bad in any way; this wine was just very unimpressive amongst the three, more impressive wines. With its bright acidity, this is very versatile as a food wine, but that's about it. The wine's charms rely mostly on the bright, primary fruit, so I doubt the wine will benefit noticeably from any cellaring.

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