Barbera Riserva Ragazzo Legnoso
Il Podere dell'Olivos 1995

As you know, Barbera is an Italin grape variety which is made into DOC wines such as Barbera d'Alba and Barbera d'Asti (famous for that labelless bottle of Passum). Like other Italian varieties, Barbera tastes quite differently when bottled by different producers. One of my favourite wines made from Barbera is Passum Barbera d"asti Superiore, about which I mentioned above. After being harvested, Barbera grape for this wine is dried in the shade so that the grape loses water and the relative proportion of sugar containned increases. This, in a successful year, results in a very thick, concentrated, yet very fruity wine. (And the famous Amarone is made by doing the same thing to another grape variety.)

While people who started Passum resorted to an artificial technique (though a very old one), people at Il Podere fully took advantage of their terroir. Under the blessing of the Californian sunshine, they made a splendid bottle out of Barbera. Though it's young, it's fully matured. It's just so fruity and sweet. Tannin is mild and acid is pretty reserved. It never gives you the taste of solidness or lightness that cheap Italian Barbera wines tend to have.

To tell the truth, I don't buy Californian wines really often, for I simply do not know which one to buy. I chose this Barbera just for its label; I thought the person who designed it might know what Barbera needs to be good. And now I know I was right.