Nebbiolo Tasting Pack

The perfect introduction to Nebbiolo from three benchmark Australian producers!

Three Pack contains 1 bottle each of the following :

• Lambert Wines Nebbiolo 2023
• Longview Saturnus Nebbiolo 2022
• Jasper Hill Georgia’s Paddock Nebbiolo 2023

 

Lambert Wines Yarra Valley Nebbiolo 2023

Lambert’s Nebbiolo block sits halfway up Denton’s northwestern slope, catching all available sunshine. There are six acres planted to a patchwork of six clones; Mat 3 accounts for half the acreage, with the balance comprising K6, Mat 9, 10, 230 and 111. The soils here—granitic sand over granite bedrock—provide a unique terroir for the Yarra and Nebbiolo, which in Luke’s words “always contributes plenty of bright red fruit and floral perfume along with gun-flint, graphite characters typical of a granitic soil profile”.

According to Luke, the “excellent growing season gave us a long and slow finish to the Nebbiolo harvest with very good hang time.” The wine itself is a touch riper, and the fruit flavours a darker shade of red compared to the most recent releases. Yet the song remains the same. Again, the Mat 3 clone brings the clout from its small berries and bunches, while the K6 layers in high-toned aromatics of anise, amaro bitter and dried red-flower prettiness.

Despite the musculature, there is no lack of poise and structure, which builds in the glass as the wine takes on air. It is perfumed and brooding with energy, mineral steel and long, complex length. When it all comes together—the right site, the right vine stock, and the variety’s mercurial talent—this is what great Nebbiolo from Australian soils look like. Luke recommends decanting if approached in the short-term.

 

Longview Saturnus Nebbiolo 2022

Nebbiolo is tough to do in Australia, but the likes of Traviarti, Pipan Steel, Castagna and Longview are offering incredible examples and it will be fascinating to see the differences develop between the respective wine regions. Well, Longview’s Saturnus 2022 nebbiolo is the finest example out of the Adelaide Hills and one of the best in the country. Beautiful aromatics of tangy red fruits, raspberry, cheery, strawberry and plum, with cut flowers, mixed spice, licorice root and mushroom compost. Medium bodied, tense and juicy, the tension of the wine is palpable, the gorgeous sweet fruit offset by tangy acids and firm chalky tannins. Really quite something, defiantly not from Piedmont, but Australian, and I like it all the better for it. Norris at Waters Wine Co

 

“This wine pours with an appropriate vibrant-garnet colour. So tense and fine; a medium-weight red of cranberry, rosehip tea and woody spices, with cola, just-ripe raspberry and fennel in tow. So very succulent, great length, amazing fine-grained tannin profile and a general sense of freshness. It feels so legit, so good to drink, serious but with such high drinkability. Awesome. Drink by 2043..” 95 Points – Halliday Wine Companion

 

Jasper Hill Georgia’s Paddock Nebbiolo 2023

From 1993 plantings in Georgia’s Paddock. A tiny production wine of great singularity and classicism, it’s hard to imagine such a fine nebbiolo coming from such an inhospitable a place as Heathcote. Fragrant with a compote of red fruits and sweet and savoury spice. Intense, with a wonderful attack of tannin, fruit and acid. The structure and shape really does define the wine, a sweeping plateau of precision and seduction. Notes of spice, turned earth and bitumen are subtle and will no doubt play a bigger role as the wine ages. Mineral tannins are interwoven with the fruit and are apparent right from the beginning, gaining in stature on the finish. Norris at Waters Wine Co

 

Some wines are ready to go on release, this isn’t. To get an inkling of what’s in store, bring out the decanter and a big bowled glass. The aromatics that emerge will be worth it: violet, rosehip, anise, red licorice, dark cherry and woodsmoke. It’s the start of a wonderful wine trip into the world of the aromatic, the savoury, the earthy and the mineral-flecked direct from ancient Cambrian soils, all under the stern (as yet) direction of steely tannins and bright acidity. Further ageing is definitely recommended. 95 points – Halliday Wine Companion