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Rapid Ship
White
750ml
Bottle: $15.94
Certified HVE3*. Sourced from 40-year-old Muscadet vines planted in shallow soils of disintegrated mica/schist....
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: $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
Sale
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $25.20 $28.00
Ruby-red color with purple hues. A suitably intense bouquet of red berries and syrupy fruit with traces of tobacco...
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $23.94
A youthful nose of sweet strawberry and damson. The supple and vibrant palate shows succulent black fruits and herbs....
12 FREE
DC
92
Sale
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $14.33 $15.00
12 bottles: $14.25
A silky, succulent red, with pure blackberry and black cherry fruit shaded by a graphite note. On the elegant side,...
WS
92
DC
90
Sale
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $15.92 $16.66
12 bottles: $15.83
Tart cherries, potpourri, raw spices and hibiscus flowers on the nose. This is fresh and bone-dry on the palate with...
JS
91
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $21.84
12 bottles: $20.90
Notes of ripe plums and blackberries with dark spicy chocolate, moist bark and wet asphalt. Juicy and racy on the...
JS
92
VM
91
Sale
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $14.84 $15.41
12 bottles: $14.64
The 2021 Barbera d'Asti Tre Vigne is a fabulous, explosive wine. Sumptuous dark cherry, ripe plum, mocha, licorice...
VM
92
JS
91

Barbera Melon de Bourgogne Mencia 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.

One of the more unusual French grape varietals, Melon de Bourgogne has been grown in and around the Loire Valley for several hundred years. In fact, this grape was first planted in the Loire region of Pays Nantais back in the mid 17th century, after a devastating frost decimated most of the red grapes which were typical in the area. The winemakers of Pays Nantais were keen to cultivate vines which were hardy, high yielding, and capable of surviving another such frost, and so turned their attention to Melon de Bourgogne for this very reason. The native home of the varietal is actually in Burgundy, where it is still grown to a lesser extent.


Because Melon de Bourgogne produces naturally heavy yields, the vintners of Pays Nantais go to great lengths to reduce the amount of fruit the vines bear. This allows the finest characteristics of the grape to come forward, and also opens up the opportunity for it to express the wonderful granite and schist soils in which the vines are grown. Melon de Bourgogne is a minerally white wine grape varietal, with a very subtle set of fruit flavors. It is prized for its freshness and brightness, and is seeing a revival in the twenty first century as an excellent wine for pairing with a wide range of foods.