The part of the brain that appreciates pinot noir, or so we are led to believe, is apparently the same as that which determines our response to nebbiolo. Which is precisely the reason that if you enjoy a really good pinot noir, you are probably just a short move from doing much the same with nebbiolo, if indeed you are not doing precisely that already.A very late-ripening grape, nebbiolo makes the great reds from Piedmont’s Langhe and Monferrato hills, the famous Barolo and Barbaresco. Like pinot it is thin-skinned, so its wines often look thin and insipid next to a typically deeply coloured Australian shiraz. But, as with pinot, its appearance is often very deceptive. Unlike pinot however, its skin is usually tough enough to create reds of exceptional grip and structure.Nebbiolo, like pinot and riesling Ð with which it also has much in common å¬Ð also reflects very minor changes in soil, slope and aspect, so its wines can provide a stunningly precise mirror in small changes of terroir and winemaking approach. Like pinot, nebbiolo is a demanding wine in the cellar that requires constant hands-on attention to detail. It’s every bit as unpredictable and infuriating a wine to make as pinot, constantly changing its style and form in its youth.In common with pinot and riesling, nebbiolo is deeply perfumed and especially floral when at its best. Its palate can present layers of depth and richness, and while its wines vary widely in body, tannin and acidity, the impact of its presence on the palate is usually underpinned by a fine-grained and drying astringency. To perform at its best it requires a relatively cool climate that enables it to ripen late in the season, but a site that is well exposed to minimise any damage that might result from the mould that could damage fruit after rainfall. It also works best in calcareous rather than sandy soils.The great clichÌ© with nebbiolo’s flavour profile is tar and roses, yet never was a clichÌ© more accurate and consistent. While young, its fruit is typically saturated with dark flavours of cherries and blackberries, with a meaty, earthy background suggestive of licorice and anise. With age it can become very smoky, leathery and chocolate-like, developing pleasing cedary and cigarbox-like complexity and a truffle-like presence. In its youth it can be quite tart, chewy and astringent, but the finest examples eventually yield more softness and suppleness. Nebbiolo has by now been trialled in many Australian regions and is now meeting with genuine success. Not unexpectedly, the finest results to date are coming from cooler climate regions whose weather patterns enable the extended ripening season that nebbiolo demands. While it’s still very early days, terrific nebbiolos have been made in Victoria’s King Valley by Pizzini, in the Adelaide Hills by Arrivo and in the central Victorian region of Heathcote by Jasper Hills and Vinea Marson. To date, Primo Estate’s Joseph label has also featured three outstanding examples from the cooler Clarendon extremity of South Australia’s McLaren Vale region.One of the most exciting new entrants to Australia’s nebbiolo scene is the small-scale Arrivo operation owned and managed by wine import manager Sally McGill and wine scientist Peter Godden. McGill and Godden have faithfully replicated the Piedmontese viticultural approach of eight-foot posts with four sets of foliage wires at their northwesterly facing vineyard 450-480 metres above sea level at Gumeracha in the Adelaide Hills. Planted to seven different clones of nebbiolo, the site is steep and rocky.Arrivo now produces three different wines: a Nebbiolo, a floral and dusty Rosato di Nebbiolo (rosÌ©) and a grainy Lunga Macerazione (long or ‘extended’ maceration) Nebbiolo that received 72 days of skin contact prior to pressing which Godden says has built up the sweetness of its tannins. Arrivo’s 2006 reds represent only its third release, yet already state a very impressive persuasive case of quality and varietal conviction. Peter Godden is principally focused on the structure of his wine. If it’s all fruit and no structure, the wine’s not complete, he says. ‘Nebbiolo can be distinguished by the magnificent character of its tannins’ says Godden, who recalls being told by Giovanni Conterno, one of Piedmont’s finest makers of nebbiolo that it shouldn’t be bottled until its tannins ‘melt like candle wax’. Translated, that means ‘You don’t want drying or parching tannins, and with (some) Nebbiolo it is easy for those tannins to suck up every part of your mouth.’ Arrivo’s wines already bring together an appealing contrast of restrained, underlying strength with approachability and suppleness.It’s quite an achievement for Arrivo, Vinea Marson, Pizzini and Primo Estate to have attained such a high level of consistency and authenticity from such an early stage. It’s certainly taken less time for these nebbiolo makers to have hit an international level of quality than did Australia’s emergent pinot noir industry three decades ago. This group shares an appreciation of fine nebbiolo, a fine level of attention to detail and an understanding of traditional Piedmontese techniques that has helped them commence their journeys with such a strong beginning. It will be a fascinating one to watch and share in, even if you think that red wine begins and ends with pinot noir.
