TN: 2012 Sottimano Barbera d'Alba Pairolero (Italy, Piedmont, Alba, Barbera d'Alba)

2012 Sottimano Barbera d’Alba Pairolero - Italy, Piedmont, Alba, Barbera d’Alba (10/22/2015)
Restaurant wine list for $35, so worth a shot. Sadly it’s hot, over rich, and had me looking for a place to nap half way through my second glass. I was especially distracted by the creamy overtones. This resembled a milkshake more than a Barbera.

Posted from CellarTracker

Hope you found a nice cushion upon which to rest your head as you napped the evening away, David.

I have not tasted the 2012 Pairolero but have enjoyed this wine from prior vintages. It seems to be agreeable to my palate at about 5 or 6 years of age. Whether that would change your impression or not, I couldn’t say. Your note on the heat ( noticeable alcohol ) might be a determining factor. Also you didn’t indicate what you partnered the wine with.

Andrea Sottimano’s Barbarescos are also attractive at 10 years of age.

Hank

Sounds like new oak. I was trying to check the cantina’s web site to see about the winemaking, but the site won’t load for me. Perhaps it will work for someone else.

I thought new oak as well, but I did not get blatant oak aromas. It was odd.

Hank, my main course was beef cheek. That worked pretty well. Still could not take the heat though.

$35 on a restaurant wine list sounds like pretty decent pricing, though - although if you didn’t like the wine, maybe not

Pricing good, wine bad.

My tastes have probably shifted some in the last few years but this is what I wrote about the 2010 a couple years ago.

2010 Sottimano Barbera d’Alba Pairolero - Italy, Piedmont, Alba, Barbera d’Alba (4/11/2013)
The wines of Sottimano presented by Rob Panzer, Down to Earth Wines (Sovana Bistro, Kennett Square, PA): This one is made all in barrique and grown in limestone. Rich aromatics, blueberry and mineral notes. Ripe and sexy.


I may check in on a bottle of this tonight.

So I posted my note over on Vinous, Antonio says I had a bad bottle that was heat damaged or with a bad cork. It hurts to tell him they are probably all like that.


No it doesn’t.

I had this a month ago at a restaurant. My experience mirrors yours. The wine tasted almost Australian to me, and the alcohol was searing. I asked for something different and the server offered to comp the glass- I told them no because the wine was not flawed: I just did not like the style.

FWIW- I really like their Barbarescos but the 12 Barbera is a mess.

I’ve not started thinking about 2012 vintage for buying wines from, but the recent TNs I’ve seen have all been pretty damning of Nebbiolo and Barbera wines. What’s the general vibe on the vintage in Piemonte?

Not a particular fave of mine, the Pairolero Barbera from Andrea is the powerful cab lover’s style of Barbera, 25 day maceration, malolactic in barrel, 15% new, the rest 2nd 3rd and 4th use. Aged sur lie for 8-12 months, then bottled around 15 months. Prob 14% abv. '12 was released in January, fwiw.
There are many heads who love the stuff, but i’m a lightweight.
I imagine that you had it pop and pour, not so much decanted. The baby fat tightens up with air, as there is usually good acidity and a good underpinning mineral core. I would wonder if a 12.5% alcohol Bourgueil would have you sleepy after 1.6 glasses, David…the old alcohol logic argument of what your body is actually processing. I do know what you mean, though, as it is remarkable to me how much just a degree of alcohol affects my perception of balance and digestibility in a wine. It is rare that I reach for anything above 13.5% these days. Perhaps more to the point, it is rare that I reach for anything but Burgundy, Riesling, N Rhone, and Champagne these days…
All of that being said, his Barbaresco wines are another animal altogether. Gorgeous.