Christian: Every December a great group of our friends gets together for our annual holiday wine tasting. A theme is chosen months in advance, and each person is required to bring a bottle matching that theme. This year the powers that be selected Italy’s Barolo. We booked the upstairs room at Stone Soup, tasted wine, and shared laughs as multiple courses of outstanding food continued to roll out of Liz’s  kitchen. I can still taste that lamb chop. It was divine!

David: We knew the food  would be good. That was the least of our concerns. The  theme of Barolo, though, did have us a bit worried. Previous   Christmas Tastings had fea-tured Bordeaux, Cult Cabs of California, and Grand Crus of Burgundy. How would Barolo stack up? Was this Italian wine worthy of a prestigious Christ-mas Tasting?

C: I admit that Italy is my wine knowledge weakness. The labels are confusing, the names hard to pronounce, and the number of producers end-less. I didn’t know much about Barolo, nor have I tasted many. I was expecting a night of mon-ster wines with big tannins, a night of mouth-drying misery. But not so! Barolo actually is pretty tasty stuff.

D: I also was pleasantly sur-prised. Good Barolo has the body and elegance of a well-made Pinot Noir with all the complexities and cerebral notes that come from the thousand-year-old terroir of Italy’s wine country. The evening was won-derful. We not only received an education, we also tasted some amazing wines that many of us probably never would have bothered to try.

C: It definitely was a learning experience, a night to shut up and listen to the experts on Ital-ian wines tell us what we were experiencing. Thank you Laird and Jay for the education and the well-chosen wines. Because there were about 15 bottles on the table, we have decided to  each share our thoughts on a couple of wines that stood out.

D: Have to start on a sour note with the 1990 Armando Parusso Mariondino. This was the first wine of the night, and not having drunk much Barolo before, I was scared. I got the smoky, band-aid nose followed by the bitter sour cherry and then there was nothing else. “Maybe it just needs food,” I started to think, “or a little more time.” And then I found myself salivating for the fruit of a Calfornia Cabernet or the complexities of a well-made Bordeaux.

C: Wow! I, too, wasn’t im-pressed, but thank goodness we didn’t throw in the towel just yet. The 1997 Sandrone Barolo Cannubi Boschis broughtjoy back to my mouth, as this fuller-bodied, Syrah-like wine jazzed my palate with luscious fruit, ripe cherry, and a linger-ing finish. I think I’m beginning to understand.

D: You are right. The bat-ting order was well-chosen. Throughout the night the wines continued to improve. One of my favorites was actually a rather young wine for a Baro-lo. Giacomo’s Conterno, Cascina Francia was the 2003 vintage. Six years old, but still a baby. This wine had a rich elegance with ever-changing flavors. It  still had the smoky sour cherry and fresh cranberry notes that most Barolos have, but as with this whole tasting, every time I went back to the glass I found something new and better. I’d love to try this wine again in four or five years!

C: Giacomo had a star stud-ded night, as we also got to try his 1999 Conterno Monfor-tino. This one is another treat with the body and complexity of top-notch Burgundy, yet an outrageous concentration of intensely ripe fruit. I could get used to this kind of wine. Ev-eryone said two words sum up Barolo and its flavor profiles, “Tar and Roses.”

D: All in all, this was a great night, with stellar wines, fun friends, and fantastic food. I can’t tell you that Barolo is my new go-to celebration wine, or that I am permanently trading in Lafite for Conterno. But I will promise that next time I am in a wine shop I will stroll the previously ignored Italian aisle and see if any of those confus-ing labels and strange names catch my eye!

Christian and David Asam manage the 650 selection wine list and cellar at the Bavarian Inn in Shepherdstown. You can email your grape debate questions to David@bavarianinnwv.com or Christian@ bavarianinnwv.com.