2001 Barbaresco Bernadot

The 2001 Barbaresco Bernardot offers plenty of spices and minerals on the nose, with flavors of rich ripe red fruits, anise and a mentholated note on the finish. It is a very elegant and classy wine aged for 16 months in barriques, of which 30% are new, 30% one year old, and 40% two years old. The vineyard is divided into two sections, in one part the vines are 60-65 years old and in the other part the vines are 15 years old. Anticipated maturity: 2008-2016. Importer: Moet Hennessy USA, New York, NY; tel. (212) 251-8200

Medium red. Strawberry, rose petal and oak scents on the nose. Supple, juicy and perfumed, with spicy flavors of red cherry and tart red berries complicated by a note of caramel from the oak. Densely packed and youthfully wound-up; currently showing a bit more texture than complexity. Finishes with dusty tannins and very good length.

(50% new barriques) Full red-ruby color. Subdued but precise nose hints at a medicinal austerity. Sweeter, richer and more concentrated than the Faset, but more dominated by its oak component today. Nicely concentrated and long, with substantial oak tannins showing. A very small crop made entirely from vines replanted in 1997; the new clones used here yield smaller bunches and berries, according to Ceretto.