La Spinetta, Barbaresco DOCG (Piedmont, Italy) 2017

 For those who prefer a more modern style Barbaresco this one is aged in French oak.  The aromas are engaging with notes of cherry and plum fruit laced with dried rose petals and a suggestion of vanilla.  In the mouth flavors of red cherry, plum and raspberry mingle with dried mushroom, and are generous and round but also enlivened by snappy acidity.  Enjoy it with a grilled steak.  The grapes are from 40-year-old vines in grown in the Bordini vineyard.  After maceration and alcoholic fermentation for 14 to 15 days, the wine is aged in previously used French oak barrels 20 months and bottle-aged for about 6 months.  The Rivetti family’s adventure in wine began in the 1960s with Giuseppe and Lidia Rivetti and a vineyard.  In the late 1970s their children produced their first wines with single vineyard Moscatos and in 1995 they made their first Barbaresco.  You will always be able to recognize this wine from the rhinoceros on the label.  It was created by the German artist Albrecht Durer, admired by Giorgio Rivetti.