Dezzani Barbera d'Asti DOC 2000

Tonight's dinner is a fairly decent take out Italian pizza called Diavola, made of fresh tomato paste, Mozarella cheese & an assortment of 3 types of meat cuts! I've finished about half the pizza and feel like rampaging my fridge for a suitable wine, and subsequently decided on an Italian wine (Italian food with italian wine?) to go with it. The selection is a Barbera from the Piedmont region, which I won't cover as I have gone through some history of the region in my previous entry! But I would like to add that I did not see or eat any pizzas when I was in Piedmont..rather the cuisine there are more towards aromatic wild game & meats, boiled, stewed or roasted, with cheese(amazing...) and wild figs. But I'm sure their wines can adapt to pizzas as well, since the wines are mostly meant to pair with food.

APPEARANCE

Deep & dark ruby core but with poor clarity but a very shiny transparent rim. Surprisingly given that the 8 years bottle aging.

NOSE

Very aged dark fruits of old blackberries, fresh dates and dry figs. There's a underlying note of musky pine wood with dried herb aromas like thyme & basil.

PALATE

very lovely aged tannins with a blackberry jam texture. Medium bodied with a zesty twang in the back. The finish is VERY long and delicious.

CONCLUSION/EVOLUTION

The fruit characters are really beginning to show after about 40mins of breathing. Overall, a very lovely wine to pair with food but a very decent stand alone wine.