My 6th bottle of this over the years and I had the epiphany that it is the California Cabernet of Barbera but I still like it. Lots of dense plummy fruit, no rough edges, all too easy to drink, some oak still showing after 10 years. But at the same time, the it has nice acid balance and it does taste Italian, with that nice little twist of mouth-watering bitterness at the finish. I am generally biased against the high end Barbera cuvees because of the heavy oak treatment, but this one is a success and has held up well.
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Chatham. This continues to be deliciously darkly fruited. It has no rough edges and never has had, especially for a Barbera, but must have structure underlying the fruit to drink so well 10 years out.
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Ripe dark plush fruit but with structure to support the fruit and not st all spoofulated. A glass left over two week in the fridge with vacuvin was just as good.
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Dark rich fruit and excellent structure with soft tannins. The cough syrup note from the past is gone. Terrific food wine. Drinking well but still held up over 3 nights.
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11/15/2017 - cweiss wrote:
My 6th bottle of this over the years and I had the epiphany that it is the California Cabernet of Barbera but I still like it. Lots of dense plummy fruit, no rough edges, all too easy to drink, some oak still showing after 10 years. But at the same time, the it has nice acid balance and it does taste Italian, with that nice little twist of mouth-watering bitterness at the finish. I am generally biased against the high end Barbera cuvees because of the heavy oak treatment, but this one is a success and has held up well.
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9/17/2017 - cweiss wrote:
Chatham. This continues to be deliciously darkly fruited. It has no rough edges and never has had, especially for a Barbera, but must have structure underlying the fruit to drink so well 10 years out.
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5/10/2014 - cweiss Likes this wine:
Ripe dark plush fruit but with structure to support the fruit and not st all spoofulated. A glass left over two week in the fridge with vacuvin was just as good.
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12/15/2013 - Rvellante wrote:
Good structure. Still solid stone fruit flavors. Will balance better with age.
Shows better with food. 90 points
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2/6/2013 - cweiss wrote:
Dark rich fruit and excellent structure with soft tannins. The cough syrup note from the past is gone. Terrific food wine. Drinking well but still held up over 3 nights.
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