70% Nebbiolo 30% Barbera. Peter Stark told me this is his way of making a Nebbi approachable early and his tasting note for the 2014 Rosso, in his most candid style, says “I could drink gallons of this”. Nothing to puzzle over here, just take Peter’s advice if you’re lucky enough to have gallons of these 2016’s.
This is a wine that exemplifies Peter Stark’s enigmatic combination of understatement and frank and forthright manner, it delivers way beyond it’s makers presentation. Here you will discover what balance and structure really mean – they are resolutions of seamless presentation combined with almost perplexing complexity so that you know those things are present but they are so seamless it’s somewhat difficult to individualise their component makeup.
Looking very fresh and new in the glass for a 4 year old, the Barbera has added deeper colours to the Nebbiolo and the wine still has some youngish purple/red hues at the edges. The ‘opened’ bouquet is rather gloriously aromatic with blackberries, violets, tar, some smoky meatiness, liquorice and something akin to leather with some peppery/rocket spice/herb scents. The overall sense is of some genuine depth with more to come. The palate is long and seamless, here is where the great balance plays it’s tricks, the wine slides in such an apparent straight caressing line across your palate that you can easily miss much if you don’t play attention and, of course, that inattentive experience is a thing of joy .. if only I wasn’t writing a tasting note! There are soft blackberries and black cherries and the palate is definitely softened by the Barbera fruit which is typically low on tannins, there is a lovely sour/savouriness with ever so slight late juxtaposed sweet flavours and these aspects are enlivened by a liquorice undercurrent. The Nebbiolo tannins announce their presence late but with a finely threaded drying deliciousness that is, although tannic, a lovely coalescing of the wines components. Quite surprisingly, beyond the Nebbiolo tannins the mineral flavours emerge, I wasn’t expecting them to be there.
Tasted: Thursday 10th September, 2020 without food and then with over several hours.
Alcohol: 13.5%
Closure: Screwcap
Price: $40
Suggested Drinking Window: now to 2028
Winemaker: Peter Stark
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