Ca Rome Romano Marengo Barbaresco Maria di Brun, 1995

Wedding anniversary #48, and, even after covid vaccination, we are still a bit uncomfortable eating inside a restaurant. So we ordered carryout from one of our favorite restaurants, Rustica Kalamazoo: bouillabaise for the first course followed by New Zealand lamb shank. For wine, I brought up from the cellar a bottle of the 1995 Maria di Brun Barbaresco from Ca Rome Romano Marengo. Maria di Brun is a special bottling made with special care from some of the oldest and best Nebbiolo grapes on the estate. I have been looking forward to this bottle, and I was not disappointed.

The cork is not wet but certainly decrepit, crumbling despite my best efforts. The color is medium light with characteristic orange tones. The bouquet, though, is beautiful: cherries, roses and just a slight bit of leather and earth. My notes on the regular bottling of Barbaresco from this estate mentioned the interplay between dry and sweet, and this bottle meets that description. Also good balance between tannin and acid. Has the tart ripeness of a Nebbiolo grape just plucked from the vine. Very concentrated but also elegant and graceful. I think Maria di Brun, the mother of the estate's owner, would highly approve, as do we--Fred and Donna--enjoying our 48th anniversary.