Dark ruby with an abrupt edge. Bread sticks and walnut shells and sharp mineral adjuncts you have to look around to find fruit, THESE are the winning features that meld themselves around the tapenade and tomato-basil that makes up the funky, not-cherry, not-blueberry, aggressively rocky-shear-but-still-ripe-and-luscious goodness dried down into into brown sugar and antipasto savory brilliance not quite old world and not quite new. Teetering between this and that and decadent in every way.
In the mouth, the ridiculous acid and tannin almost take front center stage, oh man it is a mouth-shredding beauty, dusty blackberry and all the rose-hips and mint-tea goodness traveling alongside combine to make a stunning Piedmont monster explode.
This is really fun wine, crazily structured and demurely fruited–my favorite kind of Italian wine. FIND IT.
2015 RICOSSA Barbera (Appassimento) Piemonte Italy 13.5
Stephen McConnell 