WTN: Four US Nebbiolos...(short/boring)

We tried last Fri (5/12/17) Four US Nebbiolos:
1. WindGap Nebbiolo LunaMattaVnyd/PasoRobles (18 brls; 420 cs; 14 1/2%; www.WinfGapWines.com)
PaxMahle/Forestville 2009: Med.light ruby/garnet bit bricked color; quite fragrant violets/lilacs/
Nebb slight alight alcoholic very floral slight tarry/pungent quite attractive nose; quite tart/tannic/
hard as nails some floral/lilacs/rose petal/violets light pungent/tarry flavor w/ fierce hard/gritty/
unyielding tannins; very long very tart/tannic/hard lightly floral/violets/rose petal light pungent
finish w/ ample hard/gritty/unyielding tannins; lots of floral/Nebb character on the nose but hard as
nails on the palate; needs 5-15 yrs. $50.00
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2. Castelli Nebbiolo LunaMattaVnyd/AdelaidaDist (14.4%; U/U; 36 mo. in neutral Fr.oak) Emilio&Laura Castelli/
Sebastapol 2011: Med.light garnet color; very perfumed/fragrant high-toned spicy/floral/violets/lilacs/
Nebb light earthy slight PR/jammy lovely aromatic nose; lightly tart/tangy very strong floral/violets/
rose petal/lilacs/Nebb slight PR jammy/ripe very light pungent/tarry flavor w/ modest hard tannins;
very long/lingering quite tart/tangy strong floral/Nebb/violets/rose petal slight PR jammy finish w/
modest hard/bitey tannins; lovely/soaring Nebb aromatics and not such fierce tannins on the palate;
needs 3-6 yrs of age yet; very attractive price at $26.00
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3. Harrington Nebbiolo PasoRobles (40% LunaMatta/60% AJB; 14.1%; www.HarringtonWine.com) 2010: Med.light garnet
color; strong plummy/PR ripe/jammy some floral/Nebb/lilacs slight pungent/road tar classic Nebb nose; slight
tangy fairly rich/lush some floral/Nebb/lilacs/violets very light tarry some PR/ripe/jammy/plummy strong Nebb
flavor w/ modest bitey tannins; very long/lingering some floral/Nebb/lilacs/violets rather rich/ripe/plummy/
PR jammy lightly tart finish w/ light tangy/bitey tannins; speaks quietly of Nebb w/o the high-toned character
and lots of PR/jammy ripe character; a bit like a Sforzato than anything. $30.00
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4. TamarackCllrs Nebbiolo Ciel du ChevalVnyd/RedMtn (14.0%) 2013: Med.light garnet color; quite perfumey/fragrant
strong floral/rose petal/violets fairly high-toned slight alcoholic very light pungent/road tar lovely nose;
quite tart/tangy/lean strong floral/rose petal/violets/Nebb light pungent/earthy/road tar flavor w/ modest
tangy/tight tannins; very long some pungent/tarry quite tart/angular some floral/Nebb/violets/rose petal light
earthy/dusty/pungent finish w/ light angular/tangy tannins; needs 3-8 yrs; speaks strongly of Nebb but not
so much the high-toned/floral aromatics; quite a good expression of Nebb and reminds some of the Cavatappi w/
its earthy character. $nc(RC)/$45.00
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A wee BloodyPulpit:
1. Ron & Jamie Coleman were in town last week to do a TamarackCllrs winemaker dinner at Pig+Fig.
This wnry first attracted my attention when I found out they made Nebbiolo, plus a connection
thru a personal friend. So we had them over to Susan's for dinner last Fri night. I thought it
would be interesting to show Ron what they're doing w/ the variety in Calif, so pulled some
of the better ones I've liked at NEB. The Tamarack was one Ron gifted me with and I shared w/
John on the following Sunday.
Of these four Nebbs, I probably liked the Castelli the best, closely followed by the Tamarack. I loved
the high-toned aromatics of the WindGap, but it was pretty painful on the palate.
Tom

Tom, if you have the opportunity you should check out the nebbiolos and blends with nebbiolos from Cana's Feast, Carlton, Willamette Valley.

Patrick Taylor, the winemaker has been sourcing his fruit from E. WA, so it may well be the Ciel du Cheval vineyard, or close by.

I have been impressed by a couple of the wines.

(Patrick also does a Chinato di Erbetti, his version of a Barolo Chinato, that rocks!

Tom, if you have the opportunity you should check out the nebbiolos and blends with nebbiolos from Cana's Feast, Carlton, Willamette Valley.

Patrick Taylor, the winemaker has been sourcing his fruit from E. WA, so it may well be the Ciel du Cheval vineyard, or close by.

I have been impressed by a couple of the wines.

(Patrick also does a Chinato di Erbetti, his version of a Barolo Chinato, that rocks!

Thanks for the head's up, Hoke. I'll have to check them out.
Tom

Tom, if you have the opportunity you should check out the nebbiolos and blends with nebbiolos from Cana's Feast, Carlton, Willamette Valley.

Patrick Taylor, the winemaker has been sourcing his fruit from E. WA, so it may well be the Ciel du Cheval vineyard, or close by.

I have been impressed by a couple of the wines.

(Patrick also does a Chinato di Erbetti, his version of a Barolo Chinato, that rocks!

Thanks for the head's up, Hoke. I'll have to check them out.
Tom

Hoke,
Just ordered a mixed case of Patrick's wines, including the Nebb & Chinnato.
His Nebb does, indeed, come from the same Ciel du Cheval vnyd that belongs
to JimHolmes, a long-time friend from his Hanford days.
Tom

Nebbiolo is the varietal I've been least impressed with from California - in fact I've never had one I thought worth buying, although I'm sure I may have missed some as I have been less than eager to pursue tasting after early disappointments. I don't see much in your notes that would make me change my mind.

They've done significantly better with sangio - wonder why?

I may be too "tannin tolerant", but I tried the Windgap wine at their Sebastapol tasting room and didn't find it particularly tannic???? (The new Nellison Syrah, now....THAT was a ferociously tannic wine!) I liked it enough to buy an extra bottle. But, I am very tannin tolerant so.....

Due Vigne, whose winery is in the Clarksburg Sugar Mill complex, makes a nice Foothills Nebbiolo from El Dorado County.

Nebbiolo is the varietal I've been least impressed with from California - in fact I've never had one I thought worth buying, although I'm sure I may have missed some as I have been less than eager to pursue tasting after early disappointments. I don't see much in your notes that would make me change my mind.

They've done significantly better with sangio - wonder why?

Interesting comments, Bill. In my (limited) experience, I have found California Sangiovese to be distressingly sweet and simple, while the very few Nebbiolos more interesting.

It all depends on the sample!

I said 'better', Brian, I didn't say they rival a decent Chianti!

There will always be someone trying any grape they can find in new regions, often with indifferent results. You can also buy US Pinotage and Tannat, with indifferent and encouraging results respectively.

I said 'better', Brian, I didn't say they rival a decent Chianti!

There will always be someone trying any grape they can find in new regions, often with indifferent results. You can also buy US Pinotage and Tannat, with indifferent and encouraging results respectively.

I would argue that some of the Italian varieties have made wines in Calif that rival, or surpass, their Italian
counterparts. Particularly Arneis/Cortese/Vermentino/Lagrein, maybe Teroldego/Ribolla.
Tom

I may be too "tannin tolerant", but I tried the Windgap wine at their Sebastapol tasting room and didn't find it particularly tannic???? (The new Nellison Syrah, now....THAT was a ferociously tannic wine!) I liked it enough to buy an extra bottle. But, I am very tannin tolerant so.....

Due Vigne, whose winery is in the Clarksburg Sugar Mill complex, makes a nice Foothills Nebbiolo from El Dorado County.

Yup..KenMusso's DueVigne Nebbiolo has consistently been one of the faves at the NEB get-togethers.
Tom

Although I am a fan of those white varietals, we never see the California versions up here so I'll have to take your word for it. I wasn't even aware that they were making Teroldego there - its a varietal I enjoy so I'll have to see if I can find some to try. Sadly we only see a few here and neither of the common ones is that great.

Although I am a fan of those white varietals, we never see the California versions up here so I'll have to take your word for it. I wasn't even aware that they were making Teroldego there - its a varietal I enjoy so I'll have to see if I can find some to try. Sadly we only see a few here and neither of the common ones is that great.

Not a whole lot of Teroldego grown in Calif. But the WolffVnyd (SLO), Bevala (ClendenenFamily/SantaMaria),
and Harrington ( FratelliVnyd/Gilroy) are all pretty good. But not in the class of ElisabettaForadori...she's the master.
Tom

I said 'better', Brian, I didn't say they rival a decent Chianti!

There will always be someone trying any grape they can find in new regions, often with indifferent results. You can also buy US Pinotage and Tannat, with indifferent and encouraging results respectively.

Fair enough, Bill.

Have you tried the Fort Ross Pinotage? It's been years but....

That's not one we get locally.

There are several wineries in BC producing Pinotage. I had a coupe of friends that enjoy similar wines to those that I do recommend the Pinotage to me, so made a point on my annual wine trek to try them whenever I saw them.

My conclusion was twofold. First, BC is doing a decent job with the varietal, and a couple of the wines were as good or better than the average from the Cape.

Second, I do not like Pinotage. I don't hate it, I just find it uninteresting and fail to see what those who do enjoy see in the varietal. It's not that I haven't tasted good wines made from it - Kanonkop and Lanzerac, for just two. It is that I find the vast majority of them uninteresting.

I guess I'd put Carignan and Carmenere in the same category. Occasional pleasant surprises, punctuate a sea or decent workaday wines that fail to inspire.

The most successful of the more-or-less recent alternative variety is tempranillo.

Oddly enough, Oregon/Umpqua, specifically Abacela, is doing some really tasty stuff. And sorta like Rioja, they have a light, fruity style and a wood-aged reserva style. There are also a couple of tempranillos out of the Snake River Valley AVA in Idaho that are producing tempranillo worth looking for.

The most successful of the more-or-less recent alternative variety is tempranillo.

Oddly enough, Oregon/Umpqua, specifically Abacela, is doing some really tasty stuff. And sorta like Rioja, they have a light, fruity style and a wood-aged reserva style. There are also a couple of tempranillos out of the Snake River Valley AVA in Idaho that are producing tempranillo worth looking for.

Would you say that goes for California as well as Oregon, Hoke? I get the sense that winemakers in California are still trying to figure out what to do with tempranillo. Maybe I just haven't had some of the better ones, though?

Mike, I don't believe the tempranillo from CA is----overall---as interesting and focused as that from Oregon and Idaho.

It might be simply a situation where the Californians have once again put a variety in places it doesn't belong. They have been pretty good at that. "You planted WHICH variety smack in the middle of a hot river delta???" The modus operandi was to focus solely on the variety, with the location/terroir secondary---only to discover that the two were integral.

Factor two: California's---again, overall---don't seem to have a coherent focus. Part of that is the geographical/geologic/climatic range that "California Wine" deals with; part of is the many different players, some of them attempting to impose a style that doesn't fit the variety. California tempranillo might exist from Temecula all the way up to Humboldt County, from the Pacific Coast to the Sierras.
Umpqua is more specific. So is the Snake River Valley. It's an unfair comparison.

Factor three: The old world has what can be an advantage or dis-advantage, depending on which way you look at it: they have ordinated and carefully defined their wines into sub-categories. Rioja, for instance. The name tells you the style, through defining the parameters, that the wine is in. You know "Crianza" says one thing, "Reserva" says another. In America, you don't have that.

Small sample so far; and that should be pointed out. But in that small sample I am inherently more interested in and enamored of the Snake River Valley and the Umpqua versions of tempranillo.

[David M. Bueker]

Hoke,

Have you had the Enfield Shake Ridge Tempranillo? I like it. Very much.

No, dammit, I haven't. And looks like a slim chance now as it is sold out.

Tempranillo, Sierra Foothills, Older vines. Should be great.

Tempranillo got an early start in CA in the Foothills; some older vines there that are producing good fruit. There was one vineyard/winery---cannot for the life of me ever remember the name, now gone, right at Murphys. Some good tempranillo from there. Don't know the current status though.

Gundlach-Bundschu has done some delightful tempranillo in the past, though not all that much of it. When I lived in Sonoma we would go over to GunBun's Shakespeare in the Vineyard, loll around on the grass (well, freezing our butts off once the sun went down) and sucking down their tempranillo.

Native Tempranillo gets American oak, but the toast process dictates how oak affects the wine. I wonder if any of the American producers have attempted to simulate whatever the Spanish oak preparation may be? Not that they need to be trying to make a Rioja clone, but they know what works and might want to emulate it at least in part. For instance, the addition of a bit of Grenache would be in keeping....

[Jenise]

Native Tempranillo gets American oak, but the toast process dictates how oak affects the wine. I wonder if any of the American producers have attempted to simulate whatever the Spanish oak preparation may be? Not that they need to be trying to make a Rioja clone, but they know what works and might want to emulate it at least in part. For instance, the addition of a bit of Grenache would be in keeping....

There's a new winery in Washington called Pomum. Spanish winemaking couple who brought over and planted the clones of their homeland, and I've been told it's great. Will taste it tonight in fact; expect a report.

[David M. Bueker]

Damn you Brian! You got me to order the Wind Gap Nellessen. I love it when California Syrah (and Pinot) has tannin!

Psst - Jenise - I have a bottle of Stag's Hollow (BC) Tempranillo in the cellar - remind me to pour it for you.

[Jenise]

Bill, this is our neighborhood tasting tonight. I'm serving three New World temps, plus three old. And since my last post, I've pulled the corks and sniffed my way through them all. Have to say, the Pomum? WOW. Fantastic spice--blind, wouldn't have guessed it be one of the Americans.