I had this one pretty early on in the week, as a good mate of mine, Ben, popped over after work to have a catch up. The perfect guinea pig cos he’ll eat and drink most things that are put in front of him, and is always happy to let us know what he thinks (in a good way Ben, I mean that in a good way!).
So we had the Nostro Meglio Barabera D’Asti Superiore from Morrison’s, which was £9.79.
The first thoughts on the wine were a tad disappointing for me. I’ve been lucky over the past few years to drink some fantastic (and pretty cheap) Barbera of all styles, so to be fair it would have to be pretty impressive to really bowl me over. That said, the biggest problem I had with it was the really weak aromas. It was really hard to smell anything. Eventually there were the red cherry notes that we were waiting for, but that was about it, and despite a long time in the decanter the mustiness just wouldn’t settle.
When we drank it we however, the real plus for this wine was apparent. It was really well balanced, the acidity was perfect, the tannin’s were light, but the body stayed medium which lent well to the thickness of the stew. I suppose the finish was exactly that long, but look we’re picking wines here that aren’t exactly the finest examples of their kind are they? The smell was weak but varietal (what you’d expect from the grape), and it was very drinkable.
The biggest fault of the evening though was definitely mine. I meffed the stew up with a tad too much chilli. It was great, but the wine would have paired a lot better with a stew without it in. Also Parsley is a bad idea here, I tried to experiment, it failed, am sticking with basil in the future. So my fault that one, nothing the wine could do about that.
I asked Ben what he thought and his reply was spot on. Bear in mind Ben’s not big into his wines from a tasting point of view, but he completely proved my point that you don’t need to be to have a go at critiquing. The wife and I have been doing it for a bit longer and what he said was exactly the same. “Well, I can’t really smell anything, kinda just smells like wine. But it’s really smooth to drink, I could definitely have another glass of that. Stew’s a bit hot maybe?!” Can’t fault him.
I gave the wine a 6 out of 10. A solid and very drinkable Barbera D’Asti.
Cheers
Other posts in NWTW Week 4:
#NWTW Week 4: Italian Barbera (includes the voting poll)
#NWTW Week 4: An Intro Into Piemonte
#NWTW Week 4: An Intro Into Barbera
