G.D. Vajra Rosabella 2017
My wife and I were very excited to try this rosato. We are familiar with the producer, but hadn't tried this particular wine before. I was looking forward to trying a rose style wine made predominantly from Nebbiolo. Unfortunately, G.D. Vajra does not have a fact sheet or technical sheet on its website. Beaune Imports says this wine is 60% Nebbiolo with the balance split evenly between Barbera and Dolcetto.
The wine had youthful aromas of roses, strawberry, pomegranate, and red apple. Structurally, the wine was dry with very high acid, medium body, medium alcohol, and a short finish. On the palate, the wine had flavors of strawberry, red apple, lemon zest, and roses.
Based on the color and structure, I'd guess the wine saw a little bit of skin contact in a pre-fermentation maceration. Immediately, I picked up the roses, one of the hallmarks of Nebbiolo, that jumped out of the glass. This wine is nice with food, particularly a dish with a fair amount of acid. We paired it with salmon and a pretty acidic salsa verde. Without the food, the wine is just too high in acid. I love a good, high acid wine, but this came across as unbalanced on its own. The back label says the grapes come from vineyards facing the Alps. I take this to mean that these were vineyards with a Northern aspect, given Piemonte's location. Perhaps the grapes were simply not able to ripen to the point needed to bring the acid down and balance out the wine.