Rosa dell’Olmo Barbera d’Asti – A Darn Good Wine For The Price

The Rosa dell’Olmo Barbera d’Asti, our next Trader Joe’s Top Pick and a fabulous pizza wine.

Barbera from Barbera d’Asti, Asti, Piedmont, Italy.

The Rosa dell’Olmo Barbera d’Asti is available exclusively at Trader Joe’s for $5.99, up $.50 since the last time we reviewed it (the 2011 vintage). Imported by Latitude Wines.

From the bottle:

An everyday and easy to drink red wine. Deep ruby red in color, with pleasant and distinctive red fruit notes, it is dry and rich and has a remarkable silky texture.

12.5% Alcohol

We’ve had good luck with inexpensive Italian wines at Trader Joe’s. First there was a Barolo, then an Amarone that caused quite a stir among Italian journalists when they saw our review and that the wine was selling for less than $20. This even included them questioning the wine’s authenticity (it proved to be legit). Barbaresco has also been a winner for us, on more than one occasion. And today we come back to a very inexpensive Barbera, the variety that many consider to be the quintessential pizza wine, that we first reviewed a couple years ago. Let’s see how it’s holding up three vintages later.

The 2014 Rosa dell’Olmo Barbera d’Asti begins with a very nice, inviting aroma of black cherry, spice, leather and a bit of an earthy note. Tasting reveals lots of juicy black cherry, plum, maraschino cherry and strawberry wrapped up in a smooth and easy to drink texture. There’s also good acidity and lots of well integrated spice in this light to medium-bodied wine. It ends with a hint of earthiness and surprising length for a wine this inexpensive. Much like the Barbaresco we just featured a few days ago it might not be the prototypical example of the variety or super complex, but it’s a darn good wine for the price and it makes a fabulous pizza wine.

As always you can find an updated list of all our recommended wines from Trader Joe’s as well as more tips and tricks for shopping the store here.