I was at dinner the other night for work (board of directors), at a restaurant with a great selection of Washington wines (I’d scoped it out online ahead of time and had some favorites picked out, including the DeLille D2, on offer for just $78 – not bad for a restaurant).
Unfortunately, I took my eye off the ball when a couple of people conspired to select a wine, and they chose a Piedmont barbera. It was yet another reminder that I’m not crazy about Italian varietals. It was earthy and leathery.
It’s too bad. In Rome a couple of years ago, my wife and I came across a neighborhood wine shop that sold an excellent nebbiolo that was by far the best wine we had during the whole trip. Mostly, we were drinking house wines in restaurants, and they were watery, food wines. The nebbiolo, by contrast, was a deep purple and nicely tannic.
We remembered the bottle (“Aleisa” was stamped in the side) and always went looking for it in wine shops. Occasionally, we bought what we thought was the same wine, only to be disappointed when it turned out slightly differently.
The barbera, sadly, came in the same bottle; but unlike its distant cousin, it was nothing to get excited about. And so I find myself wondering if I will ever find an Italian varietal I can get excited about. They’re certainly gaining popularity among local winemakers. I’m seeing more barbera’s these days, and it can only be a matter of time before someone starts growing nebbiolo, in part just because it’s hard to grow well.
After we finished the barbera, I was able to sneak in an order for a bottle of 2003 Abeja Cabernet Sauvignon. It was everything the barbera wasn’t – dark, refined, balanced. Washington wine simply cannot be beat – if you know what to look for!
