The lighter ruby-hued 2018 Bricco Rosso Centennial Mountain Vineyard offers up a pretty, Nebbiolo-like bouquet of mulled cherries, dried herbs, licorice, and flowers. Beautifully complex and elegant, it's medium-bodied on the palate and has light, silky yet present tannins, a wonderful core of sweet fruit, and a great finish. It's like a Barbaresco mixed with a Red Burgundy. The blend is 50% Nebbiolo, 15% each of Nerello Mascalese, Carignan, and Primitivo, and the final 5% Barbera. I don't think there's anyone in California doing Italian varieties better than Kevin Harvey and his team at Rhys (who are behind the Aeris wines).

The 2018 Bricco Rosso bottling from Aeris is composed from a cépages of fifty percent Nebbiolo, fifteen percent each of Nerello Mascalese, Carignan and Primitivo and five percent of Barbera. The wine offers up a deep and complex bouquet of red and black cherries, sweet dark berries, a hint of chocolate, a gentle touch of fresh herb tones, a hint of curry, a classy framing of cedar and a spicy topnote. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, focused and nicely ripe, with great mineral undertow (particularly for fairly young vines!), a lovely core of fruit, firm, chewy tannins and a long, complex and very well balanced finish. This too is a touch riper than I would like ideally, coming in at 14.5 percent octane, but it carries its alcohol very well and will have no difficulty aging beautifully. I can well imagine drinking this wine ten or fifteen years down the road and wonder why I even bothered to comment about the ripeness when it was young! 2028-2055+.