Azienda Agricola Barbacarlo di Lino Maga Barbacarlo Oltrepo Pavese Red Blend 2005

These are soulful, historical wines from Oltrepo Pavese in Lombardy, Italy. This region along the south side of the Po river valley (literally the 'beyond the Po') is one of Italy's best kept secrets, even among the most well-versed wine connoisseurs. Commendatore Lino Maga's family has been making wine since 1886 from their single cru 'Barbacarlo'. This was essentially a monopole that started to get a reputation for making quality wine. Unfortunately, many neighbors started to use the name Barbacarlo on their wine as well. Lino had enough and spent 20+ years and lot of money waging a legal battle to make sure his family's monopole was recognized as its own. He won this fight, and in 1983 the name 'Barbacarlo' was reserved solely for his family's vineyards. Winemaking here is anduuml;ber traditional. He's often compared to Bartolo Mascarello in his winemaking style and philosophy. Everything is done manually and with no chemicals. The grapes are Croatina, Uva Rara and Vespolina (locally called Ughetta) planted on very steep, calcareous soil. After a very careful selection of grapes, the wines are fermented with native yeast in very old botti with no temperature control. The wine is bottled unfiltered the spring following the harvest. The wines finish fermentation in the bottle and, to a varying degree depending on vintage, can have a definite spritz to them.

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