Category: Nebbiolo

Three Langhe Nebbioli in a row. Obsessional probably as it’s not quite the appropriate drink for a languid Melbourne January. Strangely though when it’s cool from the fridge the bright red fruit and mouth whacking tannin and acidity seem to fit a light veg pasta or pizza. Well, that’s the excuse and witness the olive oily fingerprints on the label! This certainly is a good smack in the chops with a Benevelli lift of rose oil, almost sandalwood, bright red cherries and a youthfully unrestrained belt of tannin and acid. Can’t accuse it of being rounded or smooth going, just delicioso. Be good to have a look in a couple of years. Sophisticated famiglia contadina.

14% alcohol. Screwcap, well done Mondo. $30.

91 points.

From a hotter vintage than the last post’s reportedly close to perfect 2016, this is a bit less vibrantly red in colour, richer and more tarry. Perhaps a rounding caramel barrel taste, just a hint. The focus is clean, fat cherry and earth Nebbiolo with firm ripe melting tannin and a merged fresh acid tug. Unarguably Langhe and could pass for basic Barolo or Barbaresco. A direct import under one of Woolie’s cryptic business names. Hopefully it’ll appear with further discounts.

13.50% alcohol. Diam. $35.

93 points.

Currently at Dan’s for about $25 and as good an intro to the savoury delight of Piemontese Nebbiolo as you can get for the money. Spotlessly clean bright red cherry, that almond paste again and a touch of tarry earth. Only just medium weight but carries well and finishes with a satisfying chomp. A simple pasta took it up a notch, no surprise there!

13.50% alcohol. Screwcap! $25.

91 points.

Another holiday treat, this time from a kind friend who’s a bit of a Barolo expert. Drink and learn. Opened a bit caramel brown and perhaps more developed than expected. However, Nebbiolo being its contrary self, it sort of gained a bit of freshness with air and was still very drinkable. Aside from some balsamic tiredness, all the usual dark tarry flavours and cherry notes galore and a tickle of fading dried roses. Cocoa oak too. Burly haunting purple jam fruit at the end still.

14.50% alcohol. Cork. A spoil at today’s Voerzio prices.

94 points.

From a cooperative that’s said to produce 40% of Barolo’s output, this is bright, sparklingly clean and extremely hard to stop drinking. After some more vaunted DOCGs that have been spoilt by dirty wood and bitter sulphides, it’s good to be reminded that the Langhe’s fruit quality is simply as good as any. Fresh red cherry, rose oil, and tarry road stones finish with a crispy smack that begs eggy spaghetti. No great depth but for the price tag it’s brilliant. Why can’t Australian supermercati import this?

14% alcohol. Didn’t see the stopper. 15 euros on a Torino osteria list!

90 points.

That odd looking blob in the photo is a black truffle from Alba’s frenzied, annual fungal excess. This year the small white versions were even more expensive than a bottle of Barolo. Moderation being a virtue, a small tartufo nero, a basic risotto and a regional Nebb were a paragon of restraint. This Vajra Nebbiolo is better than many a Barolo and the fungus was fresh and very smelly, heaven on a budget indeed. 2016 looks like a blessing and the Vajras are really on form. Forward, crunchy, perfumed fruit and immediately delicious, things only got better and deeper over three days. Beautifully judged extraction brought the fruit centre stage but the tannins are just so perfectly ripe and deep that the thought of a longer stewed 2016 Barolo is just toe curling. Great cherry flavour, florals, Piemonte stones, perfectly sanitary acidity and those tannins.

14.00% alcohol. Diam I think, pay attention at the back. 19.90 euros.

93 punti but extra for sheer stylee.

Ah, Pe Pe. A post through Rosso tinted glasses. Mountain fresh red fruits of the cherry persuasion, mouthwatering ripe acidity and the finest tannin like licking a lump of granite if you were silly enough to do so. Alpine strawberries and herbs on fine porcelain bones. Delicate but haunting.  So pure and goes a notch up in deliciousness with a bowl of Valtellina pizzoccheri. Buckwheat pasta with more butter and cheese than you may care to know. Not going to argue with the local opinion that this fine Nebbiolo helps the fat go down.

A visit to this fiercely intelligent and proud producer was a rare joy. Such poise and light handed precision in vineyard detail was a treat all the way up to the top of the crus. Infernally tasty. Sondrio’s a beautiful Alpine town even in a freezing autumn deluge. Badly smitten.

13.50% alcohol I think, tastes less. Cork. 20 euros on the list.

91 points but preferred to many mega point pan galactic gargle blasters.

A second bottle at home in Melbourne was equally delicious. Better the third day, clean, exquisitely perfumed mountain Nebbiolo. Geologists forgive me but it’s seriously rocky. If it were possible to lick an Alp, then perhaps it would be thus?

92 punti but what a wine of place.

From the passionate and welcoming enoteca La Bottega dei Golosi in Modena this gnome sized producer’s Monforte grown Nebb is pale ruby and perfumed. Bit sulky to start but in three days it just kept softening to a delicious red fruited crisp whole. In no way dense or profound but still true to place, evenly ripe and rose fragrant. Fresh red cherries and a hint of earth as well. Pure and sort of oxymoronically delicate for Monforte. It made good left over pizza taste even better.

14% alcohol. One of those horrible, should be a law against them, 1+1 corks. 14 euros.

90 points.