Tenuta Olim Bauda Barbera d'Asti Le Rocchette 2019

Full red color and spicy spicy scent, with some cedar, oak and fresh red fruit. The full, juicy taste lingers for a long time, with fresh acidity and light tannin.

The Piemonte wine region has two completely different grapes that (can) produce great wines. The spicy and tannic nebbiolo grape dominates in Barolo while the fresh elegant barbera produces beautiful results in Alba and Asti.

 

The particularly beautiful red wine from Tenuta Olim Bauda comes from the latter place. The spicy fresh barbera grape, in combination with 18 months oak aging, obtains a complex round and smooth taste.

 

The grapes for the powerful Le Rocchette are only harvested by hand in the second half of October. Dino Bertolino selects old vines, which give grapes with more concentration and maturity. This selection is important to the winemaking process, as Le Rocchette ages for about eighteen months in large 2,500 liter barrels made of French oak.

A light Barbera, for example from a younger vineyard, would not be able to handle this and soon have an overdose of oak influence. For this special and prize-winning Le Rocchette it turns out very positively. The taste and aroma become more complex due to the slow and even aging in the large barrels and the wine retains the unique taste qualities of optimally ripe barbera grapes.

The brothers Dino and Gianni make one of the most beautiful Barberas in Piedmont with Le Rocchette. Drink the wine like the Italians at the table with a matching dish, or simply with cheese or sausage and bread.

 

Viticulture is hard work to produce a product that seems to have emerged effortlessly. 'Making wine is practical and poetic at the same time', they say at Tenuta Olim Bauda in Piemonte. It requires a lot of knowledge, effort, dedication and patience. Although the brothers Dino and Gianni and their sister Diana Bertolino grew up with it - the domain has been in the family for generations - making good wine is never self-evident.

Olim Bauda is located in the northeast of Italy, in the province of Asti and within that in the Monferrato region. Here, Dino, Gianni and Diana turn six vineyards into a range of wines, including well-known names such as Barbera d'Asti and Moscato d'Asti. They also grow the lesser-known grape grignolino, an old - and tricky - Piedmontese variety.

The contrast between poetry and hard slogging is reflected in the cellars. On the one hand a beautiful historic barrel cellar where the wines rest and mature, on the other hand a modern room with shiny tanks where fermentation takes place under strictly controlled conditions. It produces wines that carry the typical characteristics of Italian grapes, polished by the advantages of modern technology. In other words: spicy, characterful yet supple wine, which you can easily drink another glass of.