Imagine this: fill a bowl with luscious fresh wild berries, a nice brambly-tart mixture with a little snap to the flavor; then sprinkle the bowl with a dusting of fresh-cracked black pepper; then go one step further and add a judicious dash of Chinese Five Spice powder. Let it marinate for a little while. You'll have a very close approximation of Ruche' (it's pronounced "ROO-kay").
Or you could simply go out and buy a bottle of Ruche' di Castagnole Monferrato.
.....
What's that, you say? Well, you can be forgiven if you aren't familiar with this grape variety. Although it has been in the Piedmont for over a hundred years, it has only been available for local consumption until very recently. It's now a DOC---but comprised of only a scattered 100 acres, so it's not all that easy to find here in the US.
One you can find, though, if you're lucky, is the 2008 il Cavaliere from Cantine Sant'Agata, located in the village of Scurzolengo in the Asti province of Piedmont, one of a handful of villages where Ruche' is produced.
It's a light to medium-bodied red wine, usually with a hefty dollop of tannin to give it a bit of roughness, but with a decided aroma and flavor of wild berries and black pepper and overt spice.
Full text with pictures here at: http://violentfermentation.blogspot.com/2009_12_01_archive.html