After her set, you approach her. Her perfume is seductive: violets, rose petals but with undertones of something darker. Licorice? Tar? She speaks. You half expect French, but no: her accent is local, Italian. Still, there's something different.
You get talking, you take her home. You go upstairs. Things get heated. You undress her, then, Wham! You discover that something different: this grape has balls. It's the Ladyboy of Piedmont!
Nebbiolo, so named after the rolling fogs of the Piedmont region in Northern Italy, can look as graceful and feminine as a Pinot, but once you get in in your mouth, there's no comparison. It's all male. It's a paradox, especially with a bit of age on it: pale and delicate on the outside, high acid, full bodied with lots of drying tannin on the inside. Nebbiolo makes wine that can go on for years and not lose power. The greatest examples make famous wines called Barolo and Barbaresco. Tar and roses...
Tasting Tour:
As far as wines to try are concerned, Nebbiolo is a homebody. It doesn't like leaving the aprons strings of Northern Italy, although increasingly other countries are experimenting. Start with a few from these places:
Northern Italy - Barolo, Barbaresco and the baby Nebbiolo D'Alba. Try them young and then with a few years age on them.
North America - Some interesting examples are now coming out of Oregon & Washington State.
Western Australia - Ditto, look for wines from the Margaret River region in Western Australia.
Digi and I shared a 1958 'Spanna' (a local name for Nebbiolo) on Friday. It was fresh as a daisy.
Get some down ya!
Winebird x
