2003 French Hill Winery Sierra Foothills Barbera
Their web site lists an award winning “2003 Grand Reserve Barbera” but my bottle doesn’t say anything about it being a Grand Reserve so I don’t think that the bottle I had is the same thing.
That is good because I don’t want to feel guilty about saying that I didn’t think it was anything special. I had it with spaghetti and meat sauce as I thought that a tomato-based sauce and Barbera would be a good match. The spaghetti overpowered the wine and I was a little disappointed. I’ve tried it with a couple of other foods, and as of yet, haven’t found a good combination. I do wish that I had tried it with the roasted turkey for Thanksgiving, because I think that would have been a good pairing.
The style of the wine is light-bodied, almost elegant with no acid whatsoever. Which is strange because I wouldn’t say that there is a lot of fruit either. It definitely needs to be paired with food, but I have not yet found the right combination. I have about a half of a bottle left to experiment with, so if I find something that makes it shine, I’ll update this post.