Click on each petal to learn more about Palate Character or sign in, join the taste56 community and let your palate do the talking!
Tasting Notes
Medium bodied, with crisp acidity and tannin, the wine is currently a bit reticent to show its full potential, but the balanced flavors are there in spades. It displays sour cherry, tobacco, rose, leather, asphalt like minerality, and anise spice, so distinctive of the terroir.
Body is the impression of a wines weight, density, or its ‘mouth-feel’. Some wines feel weighty, or full bodied, while others feel light bodied. Wine runs the gamut from light to full, with most falling somewhere in between.
TANNIN
Low
Subtle
Balanced
Pronounced
High
Tannin can range greatly in wine, but it is necessary to some degree, and a necessary constituent for red wines to age well. In high amounts, it can cause a drying affect, which is sensed mostly on the gums and tongue. Tannin is a natural preservative extracted from grape skins, otherwise known as polyphenols that are micronutrients and antioxidants with potential health benefits.
ACIDITY
Soft
Subtle
Balanced
Pronounced
High
Acidity is a foundational component in wine. In fact, low acidity, or ‘flabby’ wine (as the term suggests) is a negative. You can sense acidity mainly on the sides of your tongue. Acidity generally ranges from balanced to high. Crisp acidity adds freshness, making your mouth water. Acidity is a necessary element and helps to balance other components.
SWEETNESS
Dry
Off Dry
Medium Dry
Medium Sweet
Very Sweet
Most wines are characterized as dry to off-dry, but there are some grape varietals, like Riesling, that run the gamut from dry to sweet. The tip of the tongue mainly detects sweetness, which is why it is often the primary characteristic detected. Sweetness is derived from residual sugar that did not ferment into alcohol.
ALCOHOL
14%
Alcohol is the by-product of fermentation. Differing grape varieties have differing potential alcohol levels, but regardless warmer areas result in riper grapes resulting in higher alcohol. Alcohol level is an objective number, but its affect on its palate impression is largely determined with how well integrated and balanced it is with other components.
While this wine is tightly wound and youthful, it is extremely well balanced and will pay off with some patience.
GRAPE VARIETAL(S)
Nebbiolo
100%Neb-BYO-lo
Nebbiolo is not only Piedmont’s, but also one of Italy’s most esteemed grape varietals, producing Tone & Backbone expressive, age-worthy wines. Nebbiolo is planted on south facing hillsides with the best wines planted on calcareous marl soil to the north and south of Alba in Barbaresco and Barolo. Nebbiolo tends to be pale in color, with brick notes with age that appear earlier than most other red wine varieties. In its youth, it has crisp acidity and high tannin, and with time displays ethereal perfumed aromas of including, cherries, tar, smoke, licorice, roses, and violets.
While maybe more under the radar than some of their brethren, Sottimano should be considered among the top producers of Barbaresco for its increased strides in quality.
The Sottimano estate is 13 hectares that highlight the distinct terroir of four crus: Cottà, Currà, Basarin, and Pajorè. The Sottimano family practices minimal intervention in both the vineyard and winery; the grapes are organically farmed, there are natural cover crops, and indigenous yeast fermentation occurs in large-oak barrels.
The crus of Sottimano show Barbaresco’s balance of power and elegance as well as the importance of terroir, even from one vineyard adjacent to another.
Sour Cherry
Anise
Tobacco
Organic
