Nebbiolo – possibly the finest grape of Italy
An excerpt from Daring pairings by Evan Goldstein
daring pairings by Evan Goldstein
If I were asked to name a variety that isn’t at the tip of everyone’s tongue but can rank among the longest-lived, greatest red wines in the world, it would likely be nebbiolo.
Possibly the finest grape of Italy, red or white, nebbiolo offers soft versions as well as the prolific age-worthy bottlings of barolo and barbaresco in Piedmont. The best barolo and barbaresco are must-have bottles in any collector’s cellar and can improve for thirty years or more in great vintages. But not all nebbiolo wine is made in these two esteemed regions: nebbiolo is also found in other Piedmontese districts and outside Italy.
No other classic red grape has had so much trouble defining itself outside its native area. While cabernet sauvignon, pinot noir, and syrah have achieved worldwide success, and other grapes that had a difficult time establishing themselves, like tempranillo, have now adapted to foreign soils, the character of nebbiolo seems to depend heavily on its home terroir of northeastern Italy.
Alternative Names chievannasca, picutener, spanna (Italy)
Styles Medium- to full-bodied dry red
Sometimes Blended With barbera, bonarda, freisa, neyret (Italy)
Flavor Lexicon Fruit: Black cherry, raspberry, red cherry. Floral: Anise, rose, violet. Earth: Truffles. Wood: Chocolate, smoke. Other: Black licorice, leather, tar.
Similar Sips Rustic cabernet sauvignon, refined mourvèdre, spicy syrah, full-flavored xinomavro
Where It’s Grown Argentina, Australia (South Australia: Adelaide Hills, McLaren Vale; Queensland: Granite Belt; Victoria: Bendigo, Heathcote, King Valley, Nagambie Lakes; Tasmania), Chile, Italy (Piedmont: Barbaresco, Barolo, Carema, Gattinara, Ghemme; Lombardy: Valtellina [Inferno, Sassella, Sforzato]; Valle d’Aosta: Donnas), New Zealand, Uruguay, U.S.A. (California: Napa County [Carneros, Rutherford], Southern Central Coast [Paso Robles, Santa Barbara, Santa Ynez Valley]), Oregon (Rogue Valley), Washington (Red Mountain)
Nebbiolo, which takes its name from the Italian word nebbia, meaning 'fog' – for the heavy late-summer mist that creeps into local vineyards – gives Piedmont its fame as one of the great European red wine-producing regions, alongside Bordeaux and Burgundy in France and Rioja and Ribera del Duero in Spain. In truth, this variety makes up barely 3 percent of all the wines produced in Piedmont. There are twice as many acres planted with dolcetto and ten times as many planted with barbera. But if you come across an amazing barolo or captivating barbaresco, you’ll understand why the grape makes Piedmont’s great reputation. The success of barolo and barbaresco is very site-specific. The best sites, known as crus, are recognized for their amazing complexity, like the great vineyards of Germany’s Rheingau and Mosel or Burgundy’s Côte d’Or. Traditionally, the best sites have been known as sori – vineyards with good southern exposure – and bric or bricco, a Piedmontese term for the highest part of the terrain or vineyard. A new official system is being implemented to categorize these sites, but it is provoking heated debate.
Barbaresco, which produces generally easier-drinking wines than barolo, is made up of three adjoining communes – barbaresco, treiso, and neive – which are in turn subdivided into more than sixty subzones. Barolo, situated in the Langhe region surrounding the town of Alba, is made up of the communes of Barolo, Castiglione Falletto, La Morra, Monforte, and Serralunga. Within Barolo, La Morra and Barolo tend to produce lighter, smoother, and more luscious wines, while those coming from Serralunga and Monforte tend to be more austere, robust, chunkier wines that have great aging potential. Wines from Castiglione Falletto are said to be in the middle, possessing both perfume and structure. A number of other Nebbiolo-based wines are also produced in Piedmont, ranging from the easy-drinking Nebbiolo d’Alba or Nebbiolo delle Langhe to Ghemme and Gattinara, which can be excellent wines and superb value for money. To the far north is the region of Carema, which sits on the border of Valle d’Aosta. Its wines, which are produced in smaller quantities, are known for their floral and earthy perfume and can age quite well.
Across from Carema is the Valle d’Aosta zone of Donnas, a very stony region producing rich and often very powerful red wines, similar in style to barolo. But it’s in Valtellina, in the northern region of Lombardy, that nebbiolo makes its most noteworthy appearance outside Piedmont. Here the wines take on names that are representative of the difficult terrain and circumstances in which they are produced—Inferno (hell), Sassella (little rock), and Sforzato (forced, or strained). With Grumello, Valgella, and Maroggia, they represent the wines of Valtellina Superiore, which are characterized by rose petals, saddle leather, and black truffles. Less full-bodied than those wines of Piedmont, they are more elegant and stylish. If you’re heading off to the store in search of inky wine, remember that Sforzato has the biggest structure and flavor.
Despite many sporadic efforts by California’s Cal-Ital movement, the Italian counterpart of the Rhône Rangers, nebbiolo is not yet a mainstream variety in the United States. The best efforts so far have been the Central Coast appellations of Paso Robles and the Santa Ynez Valley; as better clones are selected and vines mature, the wines are improving. Tasty as they are, they face an uphill battle for market share, as much of the wine-drinking public is only now becoming comfortable with Italy’s benchmark wines. In any case, California’s best examples taste very different from the Italian wines. Some limited plantings of nebbiolo can be found in eastern Washington (Red Mountain) and southern Oregon (the Rogue Valley). Experiments in other states have not yet produced anything noteworthy.
In Australia, more than seventy producers are incorporating nebbiolo and coming up with award-winning bottles. Various styles of wines, both blended and single variety, are being made in Murray Darling, the Adelaide Hills, Rutherglen, Geographe, and King Valley. Not as widely available in the United States, the nebbiolos can be worth trying if you are in Australia and tired of shiraz, grenache, and Mourvèdre either separately or blended into GSM. There are plantings of nebbiolo in Argentina’s Mendoza region and a smattering in New Zealand, Chile, and Uruguay.
Vintner’s Choices Choice of clone or selection, low vs. high altitude sites, microoxygenation vs. traditional tannin management, old oak vs. new oak, single variety vs. blend, small barrels vs. casks, traditional vs. modern approach nebbiolo performs best at higher elevations with ample sun (in the Northern Hemisphere, that means south-facing slopes). In Piedmont’s Barolo and Barbaresco regions, the controversial effort to certify the best sites has produced a ranking system. It replaces traditional terms like sori and bricco with the term vigna, the equal of 'single vineyard,' with many restrictions on yields, vineyard registration, and prohibitions on the use of the colloquial and long-used names that always follow these sori and bricco terms. The new system is confusing and may not catch on, but it does officially recognize the hierarchy of vineyards. The best sites include Conterno’s Francia (barolo), Cannuba (sourced by Chiarlo, Prunotto, Scavino, and other estates in Barolo), Rabaja in Barbaresco (sourced by Giacosa, Rocco, and Cortese, among others), and Vigna Rionda in Barolo (a great vineyard for pira, canale, and massolino).
Two of the other decisions pertinent to nebbiolo include choice of clone (there are many for nebbiolo and a handful that are preferred) and tannin management. Though few vintners are using micro-oxygenation, they do implement other measures, such as shorter maceration periods and use of riper fruit, to attenuate the astringency that can plague this grape. Nebbiolo (and barolo in particular) has traditionally been a gamble, often characterized as much for its drying tannin, volatile and dried-out fruit, and coarse winemaking as by its potential complexity. When new vintages were released, most producers would shrug and encourage you to wait at least ten years. Then you’d be rewarded with either a fabulous bottle or, more likely, a very dry, tea-colored wine that reminded you of dirty desiccated plums, black figs, and dried flowers. The best traditionalists, those wineries capable of making this wine into something brilliant, include the Conternos (Aldo and Giacomo), Giuseppe Mascarello, and Bruno Giacosa. The rest of the pack’s poor showings encouraged a younger group of vintners, led by Elio Altare, Roberto Voerzio, and Domencio Clerico, to take a more modern approach. Defined by the use of small, new oak (versus large, old casks), shorter but more intensive macerations, and shorter vinification, this fresher, more opulent style of wine attracted a new generation of wine drinkers.While some scoff at this 'internationalization' of a classic wine, others embrace it as a demonstration of nebbiolo’s true pedigree and a justification of its ranking among the great modern reds. I encourage you to explore both styles and decide for yourself which you prefer.
Although quality nebbiolo is almost always 100 percent pure, some regions are known for their adept blending (Gattinara, for example, for its deft touch with bonarda, and Carema for its skillful use of the local freisa, among other grapes).
Reproduced with permission of University of California Press © Evan Goldstein 2010
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Daring Pairings by Evan Goldstein is published by University of California Press (Berkeley and LA; 2010; hb 353 pp) and retails for RRP US$34.95 or RRP A$55.95 in Australia.
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