Sunday, April 4, 2010

Michele Chiarlo Barbera d'Asti Le Orme, 2007

Barbera is often a good wine to order by the bottle in a restaurant because it goes so well with so many different entrees. At Graham's Grille, an excellent restaurant on the plaza in Taos, NM, Donna ordered a lamb burger and I had pan fried trout. We were both more than pleased with this $30 bottle of Barbera d'Asti.

The wine is a deep, dark, bluish color as it's poured, and there are intense aromas of black and red fruit that give the impression of a big, tannic wine, more suited to lamb than fish. On the palate, the wine has a zippy acidity to counter the sweetish, blackberry/black currant flavors, and it's a delightful match for the trout. I suspect this wine will gain complexity with aging, but it's charm right now is its straightforward approach to the dinner table.

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