Roberto Sarotto, Elena la Luna, Barbera d’Alba, Piedmont, 2010

Tasting: Barbera d’Alba

Intriguing complex nose. Charming and well presented. A cocktail of dark spices and dry plums followed by a very dense cooked fruit midpalate. very rich and concentrated.

Tasting: Barbera d’Alba

Opaque red. Ripe polished oaky nose, plums and black cherries, and a light savoury tone. Rich and succulent, with ample flesh and concentration, and a light chocolaty tone. Super-ripe so the acidity is modest but the alcohol doesn’t show. Perhaps it lacks typicity and is a bit too soft, but it’s an impressive wine. Quite long.

Tasting: Barbera d’Alba

Deep purple ruby. Intensely spicy aromas of cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves complement black cherry and plum. Then very rich dense and suave with polished tannins and super ripe fruit on the long finish. This tastes like an Amarone, with a lot of very expensive, spicy oak used very cleverly here. On the positive, you won’t notice the 16% alcohol, on the negative this doesn’t remind me much of Barbera at all. In fact, could be any grape subjected to air-drying. Some will score this wine much higher than I, but the grape has to count for something, in my mind.