#38- Barbera

The name of the winery is Ricossa in the Piedmont region of Italy. As you can note, this is the second Italian red wine from the Piedmont region. Not done on purpose, I ended up tasting Italy's Nebbiolo and Barbera grapes one right after another. Both bought at Sherbrooke Liquor, it is interesting to note couple of things:

1. I thought the wines tasted quite similar and it took a lot for me to really tell the difference. I'm sure any wine connoisseur worth their weight would have absolutely no problem making the distinction but I didn't really notice much. The big difference is how is is aged. The Barolo (Nebbiolo) grape is aged in oak barrels. While Barbera based wines can be aged in oak, this one wasn't. This wine- the Barbera D'Asti wine is a very dark purple wine and tasted of cherries and slightly smoky (perhaps why I couldn't tell the difference).

2. Craig actually liked this wine better, calling it milder and he's right. When it comes to its weight, the Barbera is a light middleweight while the Nebbiolo is a light heavyweight so Craig was quite observant in pointing this out.

It was our brother's birthday (happy 30th Jim) and mom had made a home cooked meal of roast beef and gravy with roasted potatoes and carrots- a great pairing with the wine- gee it's almost like I planned that! The dinner was delicious and I too really enjoyed this wine as well even though I can't say the wine sticks out for me as a favourite nor would I likely be able to recall a couple of months from now what this wine tasted like at all.

It's too bad because any description of a Barbera based wine seems to be exciting and full of description. And what are my thoughts?Would I go out of my way to go and get another bottle of Barbera D'Asti? Probably not. I guess to me this wine is a little too neutral for my tastes and doesn't offer me enough on my pallette. It's almost as if it would make a great table red, I doubt it would offend anyone very much but wouldn't leave a lasting impression either. At least that's how I'll remember it...or won't.

#37- Nebbiolo

The wine we drank was a Barolo but the grape varietal it's known as is the Nebbiolo grape. It is also known as Italy's most noble grape so I ensured that we would indeed be trying an Italian wine. I picked up a ton of International wines (I think when I went in, I was expecting to buy two wines, I left with eight) from Sherbrooke Liquor store in Edmonton.

Now, I have been slightly lazy in my blog writing as I've been intertwining some other blog postings with the grape reviews so I'm actually four ahead (completed #40 tonight) but one thing it did allow to do was try and retry the Barolo wine along with the Barbera D'Asti wine (#38). I found both wines quite similar and I can't say that like one more than the other. But let me get back to focusing on the Barolo. The wine is from the Batasiolo winery in the Piedmont region of Italy and while the winery makes more than one Barolo wine, this is the wine that we tasted!

The Nebbiolo grape is also known as Barolo so you may or may not encounter that on the bottle when you're reading it (I had to look it up to make sure that Barolo was indeed the Nebbiolo grape). Craig tried these wines and admittedly was more descriptive in his descriptions of the wine. Now remember, Craig isn't usually a fan of red wine and recently dismissed the Shiraz! But he did not mind this wine and observed that it wasn't took oaky and a bit on the dry side. Interestingly enough, I didn't notice any oakiness taste even though I knew that this wine was in fact barreled. My taste buds are failing me.

Nebbiolo based wines can often take on tastes such as tar and roses and depending the particular region in the Piedmont, can have other tastes of rasperries, violets, tar, wild herbs and cherries. Like Craig noted, it is kind of dry and that is due to the Nebbiolo grape being very high in tannins (causing the puckering in your mouth and the feeling of dryness). Often, this wine is left to age a bit to lessen the tannins and make the wine drinkable.

Dinner that night was perogies (they were whole wheat). And in case you're not familiar with what perogies are, they are this fabulous Ukrainian dish that we are all very familiar with here in Alberta. And so easy to make!! You can either fry them up or boil them for a healthier choice. Add a little sour cream, some chives and bacon bits and you got yourself a meal. Sometimes it's really hard to cook for one person and when you have just come home from the gym after having worked out for an hour PLUS an hour of hot yoga (this is why I'm drinking wine in workout gear) and coming home at 8pm, the last thing you want to do is make a big meal. Perogies it is! Ciao!