2003 Desert Wind Barbera

[dananne]

Could've posted this in Italian Wines/Varieties, but decided to give this thread some love.

As with the Cab I posted on a few weeks ago, we bought this at Duck Pond in Oregon on a trip a couple of summers ago. This is their new label based in Prosser and focusing on Washington wines. They planted a small amount of Barbera on the Wahluke Slope, intending to use it for blending, but decided to bottle it as a varietal wine. They blend in some Merlot and Cab and age it for a year in American oak, which shows up in the finished product. While this is a food-friendly wine, with black plum and cherry aromas and flavors, decent acidity, and rounded tannins, it does tend a bit too much to the oak, and the additions make it taste like a non-descript red. Nothing to really fault, but nothing to make it stand out. Matched with homemade goat cheese tortilla pizzas. Alc. 13.5%. Paid about $15 at the winery (Duck Pond, not Desert Wind).