For dinner last night we made sweet Italian sausage in a tomato meat sauce with some rigatoni and garlic bread and opened this gem from Wine Library. This is by far the oldest, most unique, and on of the the best Barberas we’ve ever drank. It’s perfectly normal to question a 14 year old Barbera but Ian told us it was fantastic and he was right.

colonelgrape: 97. I have to give this the nod over the 09 Tenuta Olim we had last month as Barbera of the year so far. This is a spectacular wine. The first thing that stood out was the color was a combination of crushed brick and dirt, not much purple left. Earth, red fruit, and minerals on the nose. It was bigger than I expected on the palate, rich, decidedly full bodied, yet not overpowering. The acid was there but it had mellowed over time into a delightful yet background experience. The structure reminded me of a well aged Rhone or Bordeaux but the flavor was decidedly Piedmont. This was a unique Barbera experience. The best part is the price has bottomed out from $60 to $35 yet the wine still has life. I bought 6 more bottles for our cellar and UncleGrape picked up 3…if you find it (Ian has 4 left) and love Piedmont you need to experience this bottle.

MobyGrape: 95:  Sweet merciful crap, this wine has forever changed the face of Mondays for me.  Seriously, this wine is powerful.  It was earthy and rustic (which is very much my thing right now) and looked like a glass full of brick-purple mud.  It had a cherry flavor to it and I didn’t find it to be very acidic at all, or at least not annoyingly so (guess what isn’t my thing right now).  Then again this wine could have convinced me that I was a goat, I would have believed it.  I think this wine glamoured me, I looked into its eyes and I was helpless to resist.  It’s sexy vampire wine.  I’m thinking less Count Chocula and more Eric Northman.