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Barbaresco
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Classification: DOCG (Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita - Controlled and Guaranteed Denomination of Origin)
Color: Garnet red with orange reflections
Production region: Piedmont
Minimum alcohol content: 12.5%
Varieties used: Nebbiolo of the Michet, Lampia and Rosé subvarieties |
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WHEN WORDS ARE NOT ENOUGH |
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When you find yourself in front of one of the few red wines honoured with a DOCG appellation, words are not enough. What you really need is to taste the wine, appreciate its garnet red color, with those characteristic orange reflections, and smell the nose: ethereal, pleasant, intense.
As regards the palate, the adjectives used in the production regulations governing Barbaresco, namely crisp, full, robust, austere, but velvety and well-balanced, are simply incapable of transmitting the unique sensations you have as you slowly savour the wine itself. Emotions that immediately allow you to understand the refinement and body of this treasure of Piedmont viticulture.
A great wine that is "barbarian" only in name, the latter being derived (according to some, at least) from the difficulty with which the ancient Romans defeated the Ligurians, hidden in a thick forest of oak trees packed full of "barbarians". The small nearby village of Barbaresco allegedly took its name from this episode. Today the municipality, a member of the Italian Città del Vino association (set up to promote the union between wine and country) is a small town of less than a thousand inhabitants surrounded by precious vineyards dominated by the production of this local nectar, long mistakenly considered the "younger brother" of Barolo, another great wine made using the same grape variety.
By law Barbaresco must be aged for at least 2 years, of which one in oak or chestnut casks. Aged on the other hand for no less than 4 years, it can be defined riserva.
Just as with Barolo, in order to improve the wine, wine production laws allow the addition of younger Barbaresco to identical older Barbaresco and viceversa to a maximum of 15%.
This is an ideal wine for Fettuccine with hare or duck, or a dish of Lasagne with mushrooms and gorgonzola but also to accompany all red meat and game in general. This wine deserves to be opened several hours before serving, and to be guarded jealously in your wine cellar in anticipation of a grand moment that calls for it to be uncorked. You can keep it a secret for ten years, perhaps longer...
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