2014 Forgeron Barbera

Happy Wine Wednesday!  It's been a wonderful day today, though a little chilly, but at least it's stopped raining!  So tonight I've decided to open a recent wine club selection from Forgeron, a wonderful producer of some great wines out of Walla Walla.  Tonight I've opened a bottle of the 2014 Columbia Valley Barbera, so let's see what this wine has to offer.

The wine is a deep ruby color, almost inky at the center, very similar to the color on a nice Merlot.  The nose is a lovely combination of leather, smoke, graphite and red fruit, raspberries, cherries and currant.  The taste is a lovely rush of cherry cola, blackberry and pipe tobacco that transitions effortlessly to some lovely notes of dark chocolate and dried Italian spices midpalate.  The finish is very smooth, with fine grained tannins supporting a long, dry finish with a reprice of spice at the end.

Overall, I would rate this wine a solid 8.5, as it's one of my favorite vintages of Barbera from Forgeron over the past several years.  This wine would be wonderful with steak, roasts or even barbecue, but in my eyes it practically begs to be paired with classic Italian pasta dishes, so tonight I'm enjoying this wine with a simple linguine with tomato basil marinara topped with shaved Parmesan.  Cheers!