2008 Produttori del Barbaresco Muncagota Riserva

O-M-G... this wine is in a great spot right now...

Dark cherry, truffle, tar & roses, with a perfect kiss of tannin on the finish. Subtle florals and very nice sottobosco on the nose.

Slight browning in color hints at the delicious tertiary nuances that are evident. 

Paired wonderfully with ribeye steak grilled over cherrywood coals, accompanied by a caesar salad.
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Producer notes from Antonio Galloni (Oct 2012):

"....Produttori del Barbaresco, one of the world’s top cooperatives, has been making terrific wines for five decades. As good as the wines were in the past, my feeling was that at times the full potential of these sites – widely considered among the very best in Barbaresco – wasn’t being fully captured. The Produttori must have thought the same thing. Beginning in 2001, the Produttori began incentivizing their member growers to cultivate higher quality grapes. At the same time, the winery began a gradual process of rotating out their large 100-hectoliter casks and replacing them with smaller 50 and 75-hectoliter casks. The 2008 Riservas are the culmination of all of that work.....

..... Simply put, these are the very best young Riservas I have ever tasted from the Produttori. The wines will require considerable patience, but they are stacked and packed with tremendous concentration of fruit allied to structure. It is a vintage Piedmont drinkers love to love, where the individual signatures of each terroir are clearly delineated. Best of all, the Riservas remain exceedingly fairly priced considering the quality of what is in the bottle. Congratulations to Aldo Vacca, longtime oenologist Gianni Testa and the entire team at Produttori del Barbaresco for this magnificent collection of 2008 Barbareschi...."
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Muncagota Vineyard notes:

Vineyard size: 4.5 ha (11 acres)

Exposure: South East

Elevation: 250 - 300 meters (820 – 980 feet)

Vineyard Owners: Bellora, Lignana, Viglino.

This single vineyard looks South/East, facing the cooler morning sunshine instead of the warmer afternoon sun. Because of that, the Muncagota vineyard shows beautiful floral characteristics and often a specific mint character on the nose. Calcareous soil and a low level of sand gives to the wines of Muncagota extremely focused fruit and firm, stylish tannin. Muncagota is a perfect example of the elegant and intense qualities that make Barbaresco one of the most interesting and unique wines of the world. First produced by Produttori del Barbaresco, as Moccagatta, in 1967. Muncagota is the piedmontese dialect version of the word Moccagatta, same vineyard, different spelling.