One of the bottles from our cellar, the Preston Vineyards 1999 Barbera. Here are the varietal notes for the 2004 release.
The color is purple with a slight brown twinge, as you might expect for an 8-year-old wine. The nose is black pepper, earth, tart currant, and a little bit of green pepper. Not a lot of tannins.
In the mouth the wine had a big foretaste and almost nothing at the back of the mouth. In the middle there was a lot of acid, which balanced the wine and made it work well with food. Interestingly, broccoli brought out more fruit in the taste.
Barbera tends to be a thin wine, and when young it can be quite tannic (especially Barbera d'Alba from Italy). Given that, this is a nicely-balanced wine that has aged well. Preston typically recommends 10 years as the aging potential of their barberas, so drinking this one at 8 years was a good choice.
