Learning About the Piedmont Region During #winestudio

After covering Croatian wines last month, #winestudio moved into northwest Italy and the Piedmont region (#winestudio is a Twitter series hosted by Bill Eyer of The Cuvee Corner wine blog and Tina & Guy from Protocol Wine Studio). This past Monday we sampled three wines from the Piedmont courtesy of Stefano Poggi, Batasiolo Ambassador in the United States and Beni di Batasiolo. And, boy, did these wines impress. The first was the Barbera d’Alba Sovrana DOC ($20), -  the Sovereign - paying tribute to the 1st royal couple of Italy. And this is a classy wine - not your California in your face Barbara - but gentle, with a silky raspberry core and soft tannins.

We then turned to Nebbiolo (little fog) starting with the  Barbaresco DOCG 100% Nebbiolo ($30). By statute, a Barbaresco must be aged at least one year in oak, and interestingly, this wine was fermented in stainless steel before moving to a year in oak and then another year aging in the bottle. The result is a bigger wine, more earthy, with dark, dark cherry flavor and tannins that creeps up the palette. This is a savory wine and I wanted to savor each drop and not move on to the next. But #winestudio had other ideas.

The final wine was the grandest, a Barolo. I learned that all Barolos are sourced from Nebbiolo grown in the Langhe hills and must be aged three years with two of these three in oak. Barolo Riservas must be aged 5 years before release. The nose on this Barolo started with a spicy mulled wine character then transitioned to black fruit - blackberries and plums - as opposed to the red fruits from the previous two. The mid-palette is firm with meaty tannins that slowly dissipate providing a very drinkable, hearty wine. Thank you #winestudio.