Roman Holiday in a Bottle Front Page

When asked to do the latest label for the Hutzenbiler winery, I struggled to get inspired with the classically named: Italian Barbaresco. This wine kind of flies under the radar with its big brother, the Italian Barolo taking all of the glory. It wasn’t until I previewed an old classic that inspiration finally hit. My wife’s favorite movie is the 1953 classic Roman Holiday with Audry Hepburn and Gregory Peck. With the raw attraction between characters and  the vintage black and white view of classic Italia, I had a initial rough draft before the movie even rolled credits.

The Italian Borolo wine is one of the most revered wines out of Italy. Borolo is frequently referred to as “the king of wines” because of its big, full bodied mixture of tastes and textures and gets better with age. But, why am I talking about Borolo when the latest wine label is a Barbaresco? Actually, these wines are the closest of neighbors both coming from Nebbiolo grapes in similar regions. Most people accidentally associate the two as the same wine even though they’re very different.

With all of this new wine knowledge, you can now pop in an old classic and pour yourself a glass of a fantastic wine delighting in the combination… like dark chocolate and scotch.