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Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $26.94
12 bottles: $26.40
The 2020 Barbaresco Sandaive is a blend of fruit from Rizzi and Roche Massalupo. Dark and nicely layered, with...
12 FREE
VM
93
DC
91
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $29.90
Sweet-berry and tar aromas with cherries and ripe strawberries. Full-bodied with round and relitively soft tannins...
JS
93
WA
92
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $39.94
The 2019 Barolo has a pretty bouquet that is laced with light fruit, licorice and lots of blue flower. On the palate,...
12 FREE
WA
93
JS
93
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $35.94
12 bottles: $35.22
Some grilled meat with some flowers and berry aromas that follow through to a full body with velvety tannins and a...
12 FREE
JS
94
WS
91
Sale
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $52.50 $60.00
A more forward style of Brunate with dark berry as well as orange peel and rose petal. Medium body, firm and silky,...
WE
92
JS
92
Sale
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $61.94 $69.94
Brovia is one of the brightest stars of Castiglione Falletto, the comune at the heart of the appellation that...
12 FREE
WA
94
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $38.95
The 2013 Ghemme Anno Primo shows just how well these wines age. At nearly ten years of age it is just starting to...
12 FREE
VM
92
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $19.93
12 bottles: $19.53
Aromas of forest berry, blue flower and underbrush follow through to the linear, savory palate along with juicy...
WE
92
WS
90
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $52.90
12 bottles: $51.84
Fragrant and refined, this compelling red has aromas of woodland berry, ground pepper, camphor and tilled earth....
12 FREE
WE
97
DC
95
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $38.93
12 bottles: $38.15
Rated 93 - Blue flower, mocha, new leather and baked plum are just some of the aromas you’ll find on this delicious...
12 FREE
WNR
93
JD
90
Sale
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $19.90 $20.80
12 bottles: $19.76
From grapes Nebbiolo selected from vineards of property in common of Barbaresco get this wine that exalted the...
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $63.85
12 bottles: $62.57
Ceretto's Barbaresco is bright and very nicely focused, with tremendous energy and a sense of translucent vibrancy...
12 FREE
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $54.90
12 bottles: $53.80
Already showing white truffle, plum, and meat on the nose. Medium- to full-bodied with firm and chewy tannins that...
12 FREE
JS
94
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $27.93
12 bottles: $27.37
Scorched earth, baking spice and red berry aromas emerge from the glass. The savory palate offers red cherry, clove...
12 FREE
Sale
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $15.93 $16.76
12 bottles: $15.92
Sleek and elegant, this Barbera boasts rose, cherry, raspberry and iron flavors. Linear and bracing, with fine...
WS
92
JS
91
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $36.93
12 bottles: $36.19
The second of our brace of 2019 Baroli is the darker of the pair, perhaps the result of having spent only 24 rather...
12 FREE
DC
97
WA
93
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $78.95
The 2017 Barolo Mosconi is a powerful, brooding wine. Black cherry, gravel, dried herbs, scorched earth, spiceand...
12 FREE
VM
95
WS
95
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $17.93
Plum and cherry aromas are ripe and rich with intense fruitiness. Sleek attack, quite concentrated and assertive, but...
DC
92
WA
90
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $30.90
12 bottles: $30.28
An outstanding example of Barbera from old vines, some dating back to 1949. Strained, deeply rooted plants produce...
12 FREE
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $29.94
Rated 94 - Made from three separate vineyards, Fossati, La Volta and Coste di Vergne, this expressive Barolo opens...
12 FREE
WA
94
WNR
94

Barbera Mavrodaphne Nebbiolo Rapid Ship

For centuries now, the beautiful red grapes of the Barbera varietal have been grown in Italy, where they are prized for their unusual high acid content and low tannins, brought about by their thin skins. The Barbera grape varietal thrives in warmer climates, and has had some success overseas in the new world, where its strongly aromatic flavors of intense hedgerow fruits make it a favorite with wineries and wine drinkers looking for a grape which offers plenty of interesting characteristics. Interestingly, the differences between young and aged wines made from this varietal are quite significant, with younger bottles holding a plethora of berry flavors, including blueberry and raspberry notes, and oak aged wines made from the Barbera grape being much loved for their ability to become extremely complex and spicy, and picking up vanilla flavors from the wood they are barreled in.

In the Archaea region, high in the Northern Peloponnese mountains, the predominant grape varietal grown is the prized Mavrodaphne. Meaning 'Black Laurel', the Mavrodaphne grapes have extremely dark skins, and ripen slowly under the Greek sunshine, helped by the mineral rich soils the vines thrive in. This grape varietal is mostly used to produce the opaque, inky fortified wine of the same name, which is popular all over Greece and elsewhere in the world. This fortified wine allows the grapes to really show off their complex and fascinating flavors, which range from a rich marzipan to flavors of bitter chocolate, sweet coffee, dried figs and prunes, as well as plenty of jammy fruit notes.

Mavrodaphne is produced in a traditional method which involves leaving the grape juice exposed to the sun in large vats, before having its fermentation halted by the addition of various distillates taken from previous successful vintages. This mixture contains plenty of residual sugar, which gives the end result its characteristic sticky sweetness, and also helps with the next fermentation process, which typically takes place in large underground cellars. The final product is a heady drink, absolutely bursting with unusual, rich and sweet flavors and carried in a dark and slightly viscous Port-like liquid.

Mavrodaphne grapes are also used for the production of still red wines, but are generally blended with varietals such as Agiorgitiko or imported grapes like Cabernet Sauvignon. Mavrodaphne grapes are excellent for mellowing more acidic varieties, and producing deliciously rounded wines, which have taken the international market by storm in recent decades.

Additional Information on Greek Wines


Greek Wines
Ancient Greek Wines – A Brief History of Wine in Greece
The Myth of Dionysus, Greek God of Wine
What is Retsina?

The Nebbiolo grape varietal is widely understood to be the fruit responsible for Italy's finest aged wines. However, its popularity and reliability as a grape which gives out outstanding flavors and aromas has led it to be planted in many countries around the world, with much success. These purple grapes are distinguishable by the fact that they take on a milky dust as they begin to reach maturity, leading many to claim that this is the reason for their unusual name, which means 'fog' in Italian. Nebbiolo grapes produce wines which have a wide range of beautiful and fascinating flavors, the most common of which are rich, dark and complex, such as violet, truffle, tobacco and prunes. They are generally aged for many years to balance out their characteristics, as their natural tannin levels tend to be very high.