Weekly Winedown #14 Araldica Barbera D’Asti Superiore

Welcome to the Weekly Winedown. Each week I selflessly drink wine for you and offer a review.
Please don’t expect anything professional, I consume a lot of wine but I’m no pro.

The only real ‘rule’ I’m putting in place is that the wine is to be under £8 a bottle. #keepitclassy.

I’m back!!

Is that a collective whoop of glee I hear?
I choose to tell myself it is!

We find ourselves in week two of the school holidays.

Week one was spent in France, basking in temperatures of around 30 degrees, make up free with massive hair and drinking the most wonderful local red wines. Days were spent at the beach or in the pool, taking in spectacular views and wishing we lived there.

Week two has been spent here in Leeds. Huddling in the house with the heating on, avoiding external temperatures of 15 degrees, face full of slap and hair ruined by the drizzle/rain/hail/wind (you choose) drinking lovely red wine but tasting the miles that have been put into them. Days have been spent at washed out activities, arguing, falling out and wishing we lived there.

France, not here.

Thank crunchie Friday is here at last because now I can drink wine with purpose.
That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!

After drinking a LOT of good French wine I decided to opt for something different this week.
I had a look at a wine from Israel. Luckily for the first time ever I checked the details and saw it was a dessert wine thereby avoiding catastrophe.

We ALL know red wine should never be sweet or thin.

I looked again and opted for an Italian red.
Tonight I will mostly be enjoying (hopefully) Araldica Barbera D’Asti Superiore on offer at £6.74 at Ocado this week.
I have decided to christen my wine for this evening ‘Babs’.

Bargain.

The word ‘Asti’ always makes me think of sparkling white wine.
In this case I am assuming that D’Asti means ‘from Asti’ rather than fizzy.
I HOPE that’s what it means.
Today my brain cannot cope with fizzy red wine.

And so, to the label!
It’s one of those simple yet elegant designs, off white with red and black type and an embossed logo.
Clean and straight to the point.
It’s obviously tried really hard to look like it’s not tried hard.
It works, I’m sucked in, it looks well expensive and feels like posh business cards.

“Look at that subtle off-white coloring. The tasteful thickness of it. Oh, my God. It even has a watermark.”

 

10 points if you got that cultural gem.

Back to it….

The Blurb

“…This is a soft, warm, mature red wine. It has been aged for at least a year in large old oak casks. Cherry and plum fruit character is overlaid with delicate smoky wood scents, a welcoming red that perfectly accompanies grilled meats, roasted vegetables or pasta dishes with tomato based sauces.”

Since doing these Winedowns I have discovered that words like ‘warm’, ‘oak’ and ‘spicy’ usually point to a wine I enjoy. Something full bodied.
I am hoping this is the case today though ‘Asti’ keeps playing on my mind.
I’m getting a fear of sweet and fizzy.

It’s OK though, it’s got ‘Superiore’ in its name that means the same in English right?

Here goes…..

The bouquet is plummy, it makes the back of my tongue go all fizzy, like it’s going to be a bit bitter.
It’s not sparkly, hooray!
The taste is interesting, there is a definite smoky after taste, one that you’d expect with a full bodied wine but this isn’t full bodied. It’s sweet, not too sweet but it is thin in texture.
We all know I like a thick wine!
It tastes more like a really good quality rose than a red wine.
It’s a confusing wine but I like it. A proper wineventure (copyrighting this).