Review of Fontanafredda Barbera D’alba 2009

Bruce | November 4, 2011 | 0 Comments

I like to try and review a bottle while enjoying it – so, with a glass of Fontanafredda Barbera D’alba in hand here we go. Nice but..

I have a feeling a lot of my reviews (mainly due to my typical price range of $10 – $15) may fall into this general category. Pleasant but not memorable. I like it but I’m not sure I’ll rush out to buy another bottle. At first glance the color of this Piedmont wine is a nice bright ruby but you can see right away that it’s not ‘thick’. So we can expect a lighter wine – and it is. The nose is interesting, not intense but fun. I got a touch of pluminess and something else that I couldn’t describe. As mentioned before – I’m still trying to develop a decent wine vocabulary. I saw on another site that a reviewer called it plum and dirt. Nice. I wouldn’t call it dirt, not that dirt can’t sometimes be pleasant in a mushroomy, truffly kind of way. How about plum and suitcase. No – not quite right. Maybe earthy is a good adjective. On to the wine. It’s an easy drinking wine, everything about it is medium. Medium nose, medium tannins (soft), medium finish. I prefer something just a little bolder. I won’t say it’s a bad wine, I’ll happily have another glass but I won’t be recommending it to the Barn-man – king of the Bold Wines – he who scoffs at a pinot, I kill you! – little tiny pinot. I should get him in here once and a while. So there’s the quick and ‘dirty’ review of Fontanafredda Barbera D’alba 2009 – medium everything, decent but not memorable. C rated through and through. In other words, skip it. You’ll find more memorable bottles than this one. Take a peek at my keeper list for some examples.

A quick word on Fontanafredda though, I had the Barolo a couple weeks ago and it was memorable. I’ll be picking up a couple more bottles of that at some point.

Alba by the way is a little village in the Piedmont region of Italy, home of the mighty nebiollo. I’ll get around to writing up on all these wonderful little wine spots around the world one of these days.

Alba (image from Insiders Abroad)