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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Menu Guide Wedding Weather Subscribe Contact Us June 13, 2006 Off The Vine Lorn Razzano Barbera is a thing of beauty By Lorn Razzano Tidings Correspondent Every June, I like to give a half-yearly report on varietals to look for on the shelves, along with wine innovations. So here we go: Barbera, once a tannic red wine fermented for weeks on the skins in large wooden vats, has been replaced by some very nice winemaking within the last few years. Once the red wine of the peasant working class, Barbera has assumed a prominent place in the middle to high end wine market. Known for its harshness in the past, today’s Barbera is a thing of beauty. Soft, round and mouthfilling, the wine has given us a wonderful reason to applaud the new Italian winemakers. Barbera wines worth looking for include: Renato Ratti — The wines arriving from this splendid Piemontese winemaking family (Renato died some years ago) are always great values, regardless of varietal produced. The 2003 Barbera exhibits lovely plummy fruit, soft toast on the mid palate and a wonderful, long finish. About $20 per bottle. Ca d’Baio — Another Piemontese treat from the Northwestern part of Italy, Ca d’Baio is a Barbera maker of profound excellence. Newer oak, long and very silky finish with hint of dark cherry and some heat, the 2003 and 2004 are very elegant and lovely wines. $20. Vietti Barbera — From the venerable house of Vietti comes a blockbuster red with tons of dry fruit, wonderful palate grip and a very silky finish. I have always loved the wines from this winery and these are very popular in Italy as well as the United States. Barbera rosé — I just tasted a marvelous rosé of Barbera by Il Gufo, a Lodi, California producer. I love dry rosé wines and try my best to find four or five of them every summer to sip during the heat of the afternoon and evening. This wine from Gufo is laced with dry, fresh raspberries and crispness in the finish. Its crispness allows the wine to be served with a variety of lovely dishes including lamb on the grill, sticky ribs and fresh salads. Remember to find your rosé wines with more than 11.5 percent alcohol, as less than this level will mean that the wines are too sweet. Try to stay away from the cotton candy rosé wines that leave a sticky sweet finish on the palate. When served less than frozen, these wines can be really awful. Screw caps: the coming thing Under the heading of product innovation comes the screw cap. My verdict is that it’s just fine to purchase wines with screw caps. Many rosé wines, as well as white wines, are starting to use spin off caps. We are also seeing red wines from New Zealand, Chile and Argentina with screw caps, and this is just fine. One of the things that the big house and jug wine wineries found out long ago is that the screw cap is not only economical, but it is less dangerous to the wine! Cork can tend to taint the wine, but not so with the lined screw cap. I envision that within a few years we will see a majority of screw caps in the wine business. The California winemakers are getting smart and issuing screw caps like crazy with white and rosé wines all over the state. In Oregon we are seeing many of the Pinot Gris and a few of the wonderful Pinot Noir going to the spin offs. Most winemakers will tell you, if they are candid, that about 10 percent of all wine production is tainted by cork. That is a lot of profit lost as well as unhappy customers that may not try the winery again! So, give the caps a try, and see if you don’t agree that the wines maintain their freshness and cleanliness over the long haul with this new system. Traditionalists beware! See you next time ... DailyTidings.com Home Page Archives | Revels | Classifieds | Real Estate Guide | Weather | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2005 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Ceramic Piggy Banks Women's & Men's Slippers Accelerate Weightloss Products Backpacks Online Pharmacy Mailing Lists Vegas Travel Guide Search Engine Optimization Student Loans Hammocks Water Filter Custom Made Computers Helzberg Diamonds Online Casinos Community Bonus Casino Mortgage Calculator Security Systems Click Here Advertisement .:Advertisements:. Site Search: RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams