We’ve arrived! And I am blogging as I sit here in a room at Palazzo Zoia on my 49th Barbera D’Asti. Are my teeth red? Definitely. Are they being exposed due to the rather large grin on my face? Most certainly.
We’re tasting everything blind, hence the aluminum foil. The lineup is all barbera from Asti today. 2008, 2007 and 2006. So far, what sticks out to me is the use of french oak and whether or not it completely masks the barbera fruit or not. Which it does (when used with a heavy hand.) Barbera is at its best when it can stand alone. And when it can taste like barbera! The stylistic differences of Italian wines, especially in this area of the country, could be an entire other discussion. A large one. Maybe I’ll get into that another time…
In situations like this, it can be difficult to say whether or not a wine would be enjoyed outside of the confines of this room. If we tasted all of these wines again at dinner tonight, while eating, I’m sure a lot of my notes would be completely different. All I can do is make observations and I am lucky enough to have at my disposal almost all of the barberas made in the country for my personal comparative study on the varietal. Which is what I am calling it. Gotta get back to the wine. On to no. 59.
Piemonte, Piedmont for us Americanos, is a region of Italy that holds a special place in my wine-soaked heart. Among the hills of Barolo and Barbaresco, Monforte D’Alba and La Morra is where my love and fascination with Italian wine really took flight. Or rather, a wild vespa ride.
The picture above is one I took at the Banca del Vino in Pollenzo a few months ago. It is the home to an incredible collection of Italian wines within the University of Gastronomic Sciences in the heart of Piemonte wine country.
I fly back to that lovely place tomorrow evening and couldn’t be more excited. Not only because I am going to Italy (duh) but because I get to spend 4 days with one of my favorite grapes- barbera. To me, barbera wines are like old friends. The ones that you can be around 24 hours a day and never tire of. The ones, whom after 2 years of not seeing each other, conversations can flow forth effortlessly as if no time had passed at all. Without getting into acidity and tannins, fruit and body…I hope my simile makes some kind of sense. Barbera makes fun wine, drinkable wine, food friendly wine. Although by this time next week, I am sure I will have a whole lot more to say about it than that.
To give you a glimpse as to what is in store beyond the ridiculous amounts of barbera during Barbera Meeting 2010: barbera sans soufre, a tasting at Gaja with Angelo Gaja himself, tastings at Brovia and Produttori del Barbaresco, dinners and lunches galore (grignolino and oysters anyone?) and so many other crazy amazing things I am beginning to feel a little “we’re not worthy.” I will be writing and posting and photographing like a mad woman so you’ll be able to experience it all with me. Catch you on the flip side…a presto.
by whit on February 19, 2010
Me? I am a lucky son of a gun. In 2 weeks time, my nose will be deeply planted into a glass of Barbera. Not in my living room. Not in my kitchen. Not at a wine bar in LA. Not even in my bed (which may or may not have happened one or more times.) My nose and that glass of Barbera will be…in Italy. That’s right! And it won’t be just one glass of Barbera but hundreds. Jeremy Parzen, my official fairy godfather of Italian wine blogging, aka Do Bianchi enlisted me along with 7 other bloggers to cover the 2010 Barbera Meeting in Asti. I must confess writing that sentence is seriously surreal. I am almost sure someone named Reality is going to ring tomorrow and inform me of a misunderstanding. Until that call, I will continue on blissfully floating through my days and getting my bags packed.
This is how it goes down. All of us bloggers will be boarding flights from cities all over the country. On March 7 we will descend upon Malpensa airport in Milan with our laptops, empty bellies yearning for Piedmont’s finest grub and mouths ready for massive amounts of Barbera in them. We will spend 4 days tasting Asti, Alba and Monferrato’s finest and blogging like crazy. In the words of Mr. Parzen, it is sure to be a “blogilicious” event. Check out the Barbera Meeting’s official blog where we’ll be posting our thoughts and observations from the tasting and all the other rad dinners and winemaker visits we will be enjoying (the enjoyment factor of this trip is kind of getting out of control.)
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by whit on December 8, 2009
Hey Milan- you think you have it all with your fancy Gucci and Prada shops and your big, huge Duomo. But, the real place to be is just an hour south of you. It’s called the Val Tidone and it is just plain lovely. It doesn’t have a Gucci flagship, but it has barbera and bonarda. And rolling hills full of vineyards that go on forever and ever and ever.
xoxo,
Brunello Girl
