471. Produttori del Barbaresco, Barbaresco, 1999

£45; 13.5%

At Christmas we had a magnum of this (although it had the white ‘cru’ label of this producer, but no cru stated…), and that was textbook: rosy, floral notes over cranberry & cherry fruit, and above all the texture of ‘firm’ silk from perfectly mature tannins. This bottle Katy and I had by BYO at St John. It had some slightly  ‘bruised fruit’ notes of oxidation, and slightly more robust tannins, but was nevertheless enjoyable. Still pretty good stuff, from one of the World’s best coops.