Bring on the Holidays and the Wine

Hello All. Well it goes without saying that it's been too long since this blog has been updated. So with Thanksgiving 2009 behind us and the Holiday Season upon us, I thought it an opportune time to re-ignite our little online wine diary.

This weekend, I stopped by my local bottle king and picked up a bottle for a personal wine experience. I decided to continue my quest for surprisingly good wine at recession prices. That quest led me back to the Italian section and the Piedmonte region. It's no secret I'm a big fan of the Barolo's and just about any wine made from the Nebbiolo grape.

But this time, I thought I’d mix things up a bit and chose a Barbera based wine from Alba. Renato Ratti, Torriglione, Barbera D'Alba, 2008. Moderately priced at $12.00. This wine had a ruby red color and legs that just wouldn't quit; long and slow were these stems. The nose was no surprise and typical regarding my experience with Barbera wines, an odor of deep black cherry. However, when I let it sit for a while and took another sniff, I detected a slight bouquet of flower. Very interesting!

The taste was very dry at first but after a few seconds the sweetness of that black cherry showed up. Unfortunately any evidence of tannins ever being present was non existent. The body was very light and smooth, without the slightest hint of the burn from an alcohol content of 13.5%. The disappointing aspect of this wine was that the tasting experience did not last long, leaving me flat and wanting more in terms of complexity.

All in all, it was a decent wine for the price. I enjoyed drinking it without a food compliment and the experience did not change much after a day's aging. I give it a rating of 2.75, however, due to price point; it ranks high on my everyday wine list.

So that's my little Holiday season launching story and here's hoping we'll get some new posts real soon. Stay tuned and bring on the Wine drinking season!!!!