1989 La Ca’ Nova Barbaresco- Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barbaresco (11/6/2017)
This one’s two part roses and one part tar. I may have got my fractions wrong as there’s also plenty of red fruit and lipstick action. It is fresh and vibrant, with rich, perfumed fruit and decent structure. Balance and proportion are good and it drinks like a wine that is at least a decade younger. Delicious stuff.
A friend of mine, who is a Nebbiolo fiend, often uses lipstick as a descriptor. I can see where he’s coming from and associate it abstractly with paisley things and the volatility that you often get in these wines.
To be fair it’s just a modest markup on the price at cellar door, which would be ~ €20 for current release. I reckon a heck of a good choice for Barbaresco ‘on a budget’, though there are a good number of similarly priced wines out there with a little searching.