2008 Barbera - top drops

Mark Lloyd's Italian varieties offer a flavour world far removed our usual menu of shiraz, cabernet and pinot noir. The limpid sangiovese appeals for its medium body, savoury flavours and taut, grippy tannins such a good combination with char-grilled meat of all kinds. The barbera startles with its vivid crimson colour and high-toned aroma - always reminiscent of summer berries, but in this warm vintage resembling very ripe mulberries. The palate is soft and round, but not without a tannic twist to finish. The deceptively pale nebbiolo offers deep, earthy flavours, tightly bound with firm, lingering, drying tannins.

Chris Shanahan

2005 Barbera - three and a half stars

"Interesting complex nose and sweet, fruity palate with cherries and spice threaded through. Has length and balance."

2004 Barbera - 90 points

"It's easy to see why barbera is Italy's most prominent red variety: this stuff makes you crave pasta. This is tight, unforgiving, very dry red, with powerful, persistent, fine-grained tannin that sets the whole mouth puckering for tucker. It is not, what you say, fruit driven, or juicy. But feed it pure spaghetti bolognaise, or paste with lots of black olive and fresh herbs, and you're away. It will cellar for a decade."

Philip White