The 1997 Barbera d'Asti Camp du Rouss is an excellent value in today's inflated wine market. Unfiltered and aged in both tank and barrique, it offers a dark purple color, a sweet strawberry and blackberry-scented nose, terrific purity, spicy, toasty oak, and a low acid, rich, medium to full-bodied finish. Glorious fruit nicely complemented by high quality new oak gives this wine considerable appeal and intensity. It should drink well for 5-6 years. A Leonardo Locascio Selection, Winebow, Hohokus, NJ; tel. (201) 445-0620

Thickly oaked and richly layered, tasting of roasted coffee, vanilla, mocha and blackberry. Here's a full-bodied, smooth-tasting, international-style red, although the crisp acidity on the finish is unmistakably Barbera-like. Drink now through 2003. 12,500 cases made.??–PM??Region: Italy / Piedmont / Barbera d'Asti Select to Add

Dark, deep, and chewy, with pruny aromas, coffee notes, and a toasted edge to the wine. Concentrated, with black-fruit character from top to bottom. Just a nip of tart cherry and oak combine in the finish to yield mint.——W.E.(4/1/2000)—— 88