Conan the Barbera  Add/Read Comments

So Conan the Barbera it is; a bottle ordered (from FindWine) simply on its pun-drenched title.

Love the name, love the wine (hate the dirty, tatty look to the label). A damn decent Italian red. A barbera at the richer, robust end of the scale. Still offering a rustic edge, a bright acidic sword-thrust on the finish, something four-legged, gripped between those muscular thighs on the nose; the man's important bits wrapped in an expensive silk cloth.

It is rich, big, rather beefy... oh my; is there a word that implies 'big' enough to encapsulate this bottle? Oh, yeh there is... Conan. More attractive than an Arnold Schwarzenegger incarnation I should add...

Wine Tasting Note: Conan The Barbera, 2007, Barbera d'Asti, Piemonte, Italy.
Price: £12.99 from FindWine [More on Adegga / Snooth]

Astride a horse, rides a sweaty Conan, big and muscled, clad in the briefest of silk loin cloths. Alcohol 14.5%.

Andrew BarrowScribblings Rating - 90/100 [3.75 out of 5]

The rear label, mucky design apart, is a blast:

"Well done! You picked it up and hey, you're reading the back label. I like you already, you're my type of person - daring, not too conventional... great.

Now can I ask you a personal question? - do you like big, muscly Italians? If that's a no, well it was nice to know you, if just for a short while (sigh)

But if you DO, then I had a go at creating this energetic, bold, single vineyard Barbera from the hills just above Nizza in NW Italy, just for us.

It is a big, sappy, juicy, very focused, deliciously current in the middle and intriguingly minerally around the edges.

It hasn't been fined, filtered or faffed about with, which means it will throw a sediment - so just keep your teeth together when you get to the very last drop of the very last glass! "