2013 Giacosa Fratelli Barbera d'Alba Maria Gioana

Community Tasting Notes (3) Avg Score: 86.3 points

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  12/9/2016 - Loren Sonkin wrote: 88 Points

  A lot of lesser known Italians. (Belvino): Ruby/purple in color. Interesting nose with cherries but quite peppery. Almost Zin like in many ways on the nose. On the palate, a nice acidity. Light cherries with light tannins. Begs for food. Doesn't seem like a long ager. $23

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  5/9/2016 - Zweder wrote: 86 Points

  Weekly tasting group #213; A fully blind test. (@ AH): Still purple color. In the bouquet a bit perfumed and some vanilla. On the palate cherries and red fruits, a firm dose of oak, medium + acidity and fairly soft tannin.

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  2/16/2016 - forceberry wrote: 85 Points

  Made from the best grapes harvest from the Canavere, Madonna Como and Bordini vineyards. Aged for 12 months if French oak barriques (40% new, 60% once or twice used).
  
  Dark, moderately translucent black cherry color. Quite sweet and dark-toned nose with aromas of smoke, toasty oak spice, some ripe black cherries, a little bit of BBQ beef with sweet marinade and a hint of mulberry. The wine is moderately full-bodied and surprisingly soft on the palate with quite sweet-toned flavors of ripe black cherries, some plummy dark fruits, a little bit of chocolatey oak spice and a hint of vanilla. The mouthfeel is very smooth and round with a rather gentle structure, thanks to the modest-to-medium acidity and very mellow, ripe tannins that contribute little to the texture and nothing to the grip. The finish is soft, long and quite sweet-toned with rich and juicy flavors of sweet oak spice, dark-toned forest fruits, some sour cherry bitterness, a little bit of black cherry, light vanilla tones and a hint of mocha oak.
  
  A very juicy, ripe and sweet-toned Barbera with noticeably oak-heavy flavors and very soft structure. The wine seems to lack the most defining quality of Barbera, which is its bright, tangy acidity, and the fruit flavors are pretty much masked away by the rather dominant wood flavors. All in all a rather modern and quite anonymous effort - not really bad per se, just nothing that manages to keep me interested.

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