Barbera from Wiens Family Cellars

I'm not well versed in wine tasting lingo and sure as heck don't know what I'm talking about when attempting to critique wine. But, I was particularly excited to receive this months delivery from Wiens Family Cellars. Barbera was the most common grape cultivated in Italy at one time but due to a scandal where a certain winemaker added methanol to the wine and many people died, the Barbera gained a stigma and lost favor. It has made a recent come back though and what a yummy come back it is!

Wine making is a complex process and even within one type of grape you can change the final outcome, flavor and characteristics. Depending upon when the grape is harvested can make a big difference in how one type of wine will taste. I have experienced this but I didn't know why it was so before. I love Cabs but I have tasted a couple that really turned me off, not that I could remember the specifics now but it was something about them I didn't like. I read that Barbera wines have a distinct tannins affect, tannins are what make you pucker when tasting the wine. But, I always thought of it like "dryness" or "bite" and I like that but I like many different characteristics in wines. Wiens descibes their Barbera as full bodied with many hints of different kinds of berries. That's what I can remember off hand and the bottle isn't near me now. I think this Barbera is quite smooth without that characteristic "bite" but that doent mean I don't like it, its fabulous! I don't detect too muc
h sweetness as a result of the berries, but maybe some tartness and what I think some refer to as "woody" that comes from the barrel it ferments in. I think my husband would even enjoy this wine - he's not into heavy stuff like Zins. I'd say its a nice middle of the road wine that can be appealing to both "extremes" of wine connoisseur. Have I mentioned that I love the wine club? :-D