Last month we started an exploration of Australia’s Hunter Valley with a trip down memory lane of the brief months we spent living in Sydney and a visit to Hope Estate. Today we’re continuing the journey with a look at my other favorite stop from the visits we made to the Hunter Valley: Tyrrell’s.

It was hot and muggy out when we visited Tyrrell’s Wines on Christmas Eve in 2009. Walking outside felt like moving through soup. My mother-in-law Carolyn and my good friend Marc were both visiting, taking advantage of the final weeks of our stay in Oz. Thinking that wine tasting would be an activity that could please everyone in the group, we headed up to the Hunter Valley, but the intensity of the summer’s heat and humidity was formidable and it did us all in. We ended up cutting our day short and I recall us all being kind of grumpy and sticky on the drive back to Sydney. The fact that Tyrrell’s stands out as a bright spot in the day says a lot. The wines were good enough to cut through all the bad moods and stuck in my memory as my favorite winery visited during our time in New South Wales. 

Marc, Greg, and Carolyn at Tyrrell's on the day we visited. Everyone has a bit of a sheen from the heat, but we hadn't yet melted at this point in the day.

Happily, these days I’m also able to fairly easily find their wines stateside. 

HUNTER VALLEY’S TERROIR

Last month we took a look at the history of Australia’s oldest wine region – check out this post for more background. This month we’ll take a look at the terroir. 

Hunter Valley’s climate is a bit of an anomaly for a wine region. We simply weren’t unlucky in picking an unfortunate day to visit the area – the heat and humidity are defining characteristics of the region’s climate. This isn’t a combo you usually look for in a fine wine region. Grapes like a temperate climate that allow them enough heat and sunshine to allow them to ripen, balanced with time to cool off so as to maintain acidity. Grapevines also shut down in extreme heat.  For this reason, most fine wine regions sit between 30° and 50° latitude. The Hunter Valley is right at the edge of this range, sitting at a latitude of 32/33°S.

Zeroing a bit further. Map courtesy of Wineaustralia.com.

Wet conditions can also bring problems. First off, disease pressures from things like molds and fungus go up in wetter conditions. Also, if grapes take in a lot of water from rain close to harvest time, the juice inside can become diluted and less flavorful. 

Luckily, there are several mitigating factors to help conditions in the Hunter Valley. Cloud cover and gentle breezes from the Pacific Ocean tend to roll into the area from the coast in the afternoon. Evenings also grow cooler during the fall and winter. It also tends to rain quite a bit during the growing season, which also helps to cool things off and give the grapes a break. Thankfully, most of the rain comes during the summer, although rain at harvest can definitely be a problem. As you might guess, climate change is also a definite concern in this area.

This image is of Tyrrell's Old Patch Vineyard (borrowed from their site). It was planted in 1867, making it almost 150 years old. It is the oldest vineyard in NSW and one of the oldest in the world.

The terrain for most of the Hunter Valley is made up of gently sloping hills with the Hunter River and its tributaries running throughout it. Many of the most prestigious vineyards are located in the foothills and valley of the Brokenback Range, which is part of the Great Dividing Range. The terrain of the Upper Hunter area is considerably flatter than other sections. The Goulburn River (a major tributary of the Hunter) runs through the region and helps to provide water for irrigation in the drier parts of the region. 

The Hunter Valley sits on an ancient seabed, giving it rich and diverse soils. Volcanic soils also run through various parts of the region. Pokolbin, where our winery today is located, has red volcanic soils on sites on higher ground that is particularly good for Shiraz. White grapes like Sémillon and Chardonnay tend to be planted on white sands and loam located on the lower ground. 

A BIT ABOUT SÉMILLON

Sémillon is an interesting grape. Wines made from this variety tend to undergo complete personality changes as they age, even more so than most other grapes. When they’re young, the wines show lots of citrus, green apple, and peach, along with notes of blanched almond, beeswax, or a lanolin component that gives the grape a lot of texture and mouthfeel.  As the wines age, the flavors deepen and become riper, deeper, honeyed, and more tropical, and the nutty flavors become toastier. They’ll also often start to taste like they spent time in oak, even when the wine never got close to a barrel. 

The Hunter Valley is a benchmark region for the grape. (In general, we look to Bordeaux and Australia for the premier examples of this variety.) The style the Hunter Valley is known for doesn’t seem like it should be possible under the growing conditions – super zesty, bright, and crisp. The typical Hunter Valley Sémillon (HVS) is picked early, handled gently to reduce skin and seed extract, fermented at cold temperatures in stainless steel, and is then transferred to bottles as soon as fermentation stops. As a result of being picked early, the wines tend to be lower in alcohol – around 10 to 11%. Wine Australia describes the HVS in this way:

When first bottled, Hunter Valley Semillon is almost water-white in appearance with aromas of citrus, grass, straw, lanolin, and subtle green herbs. It’s crisp and delicate with a chalky minerality. Patience pays great dividends, however, and the finest examples with high acidity and low alcohol transform after as little as five years in bottle, revealing honeyed, toasty, grilled nut characters – almost as if the wine has spent time in oak (even though it hasn’t). It’s these wines that make Hunter Valley Semillon one of the wine world’s great collectible wonders. Prices of these age-worthy Semillons are well within reach of most wine lovers and, under the right conditions, the transformation that occurs over time is substantial. The key point of difference in aged Hunter Valley Semillon is that the best examples will retain an identifiable stamp of primary fruit and a nucleus of fine acidity even after decades in the cellar.

The acidity is so racy in Hunter Valley Sémillons that they were often referred to as Hunter Rieslings – don’t let this confuse you, it is a different grape. The typical style here is dry, however, the grape is susceptible to botrytis and the humid conditions in many parts of the Hunter Valley are perfect for it, so excellent sweet versions are also made here.  

TYRRELL’S WINES

Tyrrell’s history dates back to the early days of wine production in the Hunter Valley, and by extension, Australia. It shares the position of being the second oldest continuously owned and operated family winery in Australia. Edward Tyrrell settled on the original property and began planting Shiraz and Sémillon in 1858. He harvested the grapes for his first vintage in 1864. The company has been handed down through four generations and is now managed by Bruce Tyrrell. He began working at the winery in 1974, at the age of twenty-three alongside his father Murray. 

Throughout his long career, he has become a major force in Australian wine. In 2006, Bruce Tyrrell was recognized with an Order of Australia medal for his contribution to the Australian wine industry; improving grape quality, research, tourism, and export opportunities. In 2009, he was named a Hunter Valley Living Legend at the Hunter Valley Wine Industry Awards. He is also currently a Director of the Hunter Valley Wine and Tourism Association and the Hunter Valley Research Foundation. His children Jane, John, and Christopher are all currently working in the business, taking it into its fifth generation.

Tyrrell’s puts a large focus on sustainability and has built a program that takes into account sustainable vineyard management and seeks to reduce energy usage, water consumption, and waste. They established their Environmental Management System in 2009 and they lay out the following stats showing their improvements in energy usage since that time:

Since 2009, we’ve achieved a 68 percent reduction in our fuel usage and a 70 percent reduction in our consumption of coal-fired electricity, which adds up to a 70 percent reduction in our total greenhouse gas emissions, the equivalent of more than 2,700 tonnes of carbon dioxide. This translates to a 32 percent reduction in our greenhouse gas emissions per liter of wine produced.

In recent years, they’ve also focused on reducing waste and note that their recycling program has resulted in a 60 percent reduction in the amount of solid waste sent to landfill. They also dry-farm whenever possible, with about 90% of their vineyards being unirrigated. Wastewater is collected and recycled. These are only a few examples of their sustainability efforts. They lay out their practices in great detail on their website here. (I always appreciate it when a winery takes the time to share the nitty-gritty of their sustainability practices.)

They also point to the fact that they have a high percentage of old vines that are healthy and continue to produce quality wine as a good indicator of the sustainability of their vineyard management practices – 36% percent of their vines are more than 50 years old and 11% are more than 100 years old. 

The grapes for their Hunter Valley Semillon come from a selection of their top Sémillon vineyards around the valley, with an average vine age of 40 years. The wine is made very much in the classic style for the region – grapes are gently pressed and then fermented in stainless steel tanks. The wine then spends a short amount of time on its lees to gain extra complexity and mouth feel. It sees no oak during fermentation or maturation. Additional details for the current vintage here and for the 2015 vintage here.

We recently opened a bottle of Tyrrells’ Hunter Valley Semillion 2016 and at six years old it was still in firmly in its youthful vibrancy and hadn’t started to move into the secondary characteristics, showing the longevity of this grape. On the nose, it showed notes of lemon, lime, green apple, and blanched almond. All those notes came back on the palate with the citrus notes expressing themselves in both juice and a bit pith. The wine had the characteristic lanolin/beeswax texture that gave it a medium body and it had a chalky minerality carried through the finish. There was also plenty of acidity to keep things vibrant. The alcohol level was characteristically low at 11%. As the wine warmed up, notes of white peach emerged and the wine’s mouthfeel plumped up and broadened a bit more.  

I think this is a great example of the style at a great price. I can’t recall what I paid for this bottle as it was a couple of years ago, but the price usually hovers around $20ish. (Wine_searcher.com lists the average price for this vintage at $24, and $18 for all vintages.)  I can’t help but wish I’d purchased another bottle to open in a few more years to see where it goes. 

I often see Tyrrell’s wines at K & L  and on Wine.com, or use Wine-Searcher.com to find additional options.

THE PAIRING: SEARED SALMON STEAKS WITH LEMON MYRTLE, LIME, & MACADAMIA OIL 

Usually, when I share a “Cooking to the Wine” post, I taste the wine and then create a recipe from scratch to match the wine based on that tasting. This time I thought I’d show how you can do essentially the same thing by selecting a recipe and tweaking it just a bit to match the wine. In this case, I decided to explore a cookbook I bought during our time in Sydney – Rainforest to Table - A Taste of the Bush by Jill Richardson. The books seek to help the reader incorporate native Australian herbs, spices, and fruits in contemporary cooking. The nice thing is that nowadays, it’s much easier to get your hands on many of the ingredients the book discusses via a simple search on the internet. Amazon has quite a few. 

Since this wine seemed like it would be a safe match for many kinds of seafood, I decided to start in that section of the book. I very quickly found a recipe for tuna steaks that featured lime juice, herbs, and macadamia nuts, all of which seemed like they’d resonate with elements I tasted in the wine. Zesty lime was a shoo-in, and macadamia nuts seemed like a good choice since they’re a lighter-tasting nut, much like the blanched almond. I made a few tweaks based on the availability of ingredients and what I thought would work with the wine. The original recipe called for stronger use of chilis, but I chose to tone this down as spicy heat is often tricky to pair with wines. As it turns out, I think this wine could have handled a bit more, so feel free to turn it up a bit if you’d like. I thought the wine’s texture would match nicely with a meatier fish like tuna. Unfortunately, the grocery store was out of tuna steaks, so I went with salmon instead and these worked quite well – feel free to use either.

Lemon myrtle, the herb the recipe showcased, comes from a sub-tropical rainforest tree. The leaves are the part most commonly used, as is the case here, but the flowers and seeds can also be used. The leaves are most typically dried and used ground. It has a strong lemon/lime flavor with warm, savory herbal notes. If you can’t find it, lemongrass should make a good substitute.

The company that produced the book makes a Lemon Myrtle Lime and Chilli infused Macadamia Oil that was included in the original recipe and sounds delicious. 

I loved this pairing. The lemon myrtle, lime, and macadamia nuts all mirrored flavors in the wine, just as I’d hoped they would, and the herbs along with the greens in the accompanying simple salad brought out herbal notes in the wine. The char on the grilled salmon provided a nice counterbalance to all of the citrusy flavors and resonated well with the wine's beeswax texture.  

*****

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The rest of the World Wine Travel (#WorldWineTravel) Blogging Group is exploring white wines from New South Whales this month. Check out the rest of their posts for more great pairings:

• Jeff with Food Wine Click is sharing "Why Does WSET Love Hunter Valley Semillon?"
• Wendy with A Day in the Life on the Farm shares "Yellow Tail Wine Round 2 and the Weekly Menu"
• Terri of Our Good Life shares "Simply Summer's Best: BBQ Pork Steaks and Rock It Like a Redhead Sauvignon Blanc"
• Nicole at Somm's Table shares "Tyrrell's Hunter Valley Semillon and Seared Salmon Steaks"
• Gwendolyn Alley of Wine Predator shares "Burning Man 2022: Waking Dreams, Secretly Abandoned Spaces, Minstrel Cramp, and the Fox in the Henhouse"
• Deanna with Wineivore shares "Korean Bar Snacks with Biodynamic Somos Orange Verdehlo Wine"
• Cam of Culinary Adventures with Cam shares "A Sémillon from New South Wales + A Snack from Japan"

Sunny, summer days require particular wines. Moreover, the criteria that go into selecting wines for easy, breezy days whether they’re spent by the water, picnicking, or on an outdoor adventure, are very different than what’s needed at other times of the year. I take this selection very seriously, and criteria number one is that the wine has to be fun! 

Certain types of wines just naturally step into the role of a party starter. Bubblies, crisp whites, and chillable reds call to me and say “hey, let’s have a good time!” Packaging and closures also play more of a role at this time of year than at any other. I want it to be as easy as possible to get at that vino, so screw caps, bottle caps, and portable packaging like cans are extra desirable. If a wine can combine elements from both of these camps, well, there’s a summertime winner!

Today, I’m rounding up five favorite summertime wines that combine some of these attributes, plus a bonus extra, to inspire more good times. All of these have wonderful memories attached to them, which of course, makes me love them even more. 

I will note that in the Bay Area, “summer” kind of pops in and out throughout the year, not always in the actual summer, and definitely stretching way into the fall, so the memories shared here kind of take that looser interpretation of the season. 

Sparkling Wine + Bottle Cap: Carboniste Sparkling Pinot Noir and Albariño

Price: Both $28

Carboniste makes some of my very favorite “happy day” wines. Dan and Jacqueline Person are the husband and wife team behind Carboniste, and they bring a fresh perspective to sparkling winemaking. As described on their website, they “are dedicated to making sparkling wines that are modern and reflective of grape and place.” Most of their bubblies are made in the traditional method, but they want the quality of the fruit to take center stage rather than the toasty notes that come from autolysis. 

This is even more true for their “critter line.” In the case of their Octopus Sparkling Albariño and Sea Urchin Sparkling Rosé of Pinot Noir, the wines are made in the traditional method, but they only spend a few months on the lees after being bottled (4 months and 2 months respectively), so that what you’re tasting is really bright fruit. Don’t get me wrong, I love the toasty notes in other traditional method sparkling wines, but these wines are just so likable and full of personality. They’re both dry and crisp but are also bursting with fruit. In the case of the Pinot, it’s cherries, strawberries, guava, and watermelon rind, while the Albraiño tastes of peaches, lemon, and sea spray. It’s a sunny day at the beach in a bottle.  

If you invite me to a pool party in the summertime, there’s a very good chance that I will show up with one of their bottles. They were with me at two of the funnest pool parties I’ve been to in recent years. The rosé came with me to a pool day a group of my girlfriends planned for my 40th birthday, and the Albariño came along to a pool weekend getaway we had with several couples that was full of giggle fits.

Carboniste’s bottles are also under crown bottle caps, so it takes all of about 5 seconds to get at that tasty juice.

Additional details for the Pinot Noir here and for the Albariño here.

As another alternative, Pét Nats  also fit bill quite nicely.

Crisp White + Screw Cap: Nortico Alvarinho

Average Price: $15 

I love an impromptu dinner party. A pool day that magically turns into a dinner party is even better. Last summer, Greg’s brother Dave and his wife Julia were staying at a house with a pool and they invited us over to hang out for the day. Once the sun started to go down, we all drifted inside to make dinner. The last thing you want to do in a situation like this is to deal with a fussy, complicated meal. You want it to be fresh, delicious, and easy. I set about making a Caprese salad while Dave made a delicious and incredibly simple shrimp dish, and we grilled some bread to accompany it all. So delicious, so easy. You’ll find a non-recipe for the shrimp at the bottom. 

The food and the occasion were all calling for a crisp white wine to pair alongside, so I cracked open a bottle of Nortico Alvarinho Minho 2019 from Portugal. It’s basically a Vinho Verde (which covers the same territory as the DOC of Minho), but I suspect the production method put it outside Vinho Verde regulations. For one, this wine is completely still and has no added CO2, which is often the case for other Vinho Verdes. The goal here is to achieve and richer style, although the wine is still very crisp and bright, full of notes of peaches and citrus. It’s 100% Alvarinho – and as you might guess, Alvarinho/Albariño is one of my favorite summer grapes. 

It was perfect with our dinner, but for more pairing ideas, the winery gives the following additional recommendations: “Have it simply with corn bread and butter like country folks do in Portugal. Also a terrific seafood wine, particularly with salty, fattier dishes like fish tacos or broiled oysters.” All perfect summer fare.

The grapes are sustainably grown and you can find additional details here. 

Find more related to Albariño here and here, and Vinho Verde here. Txakolina and Riesling are two more summer favorites. 

Rosé + Screw Cap: August Kessler Rosé 

I’m not sure it’s possible to get through the summer without rosé. Can you even call it summer if there is no rosé? I make no bones about the fact that I love rosés in many styles and from around the world.  I find that versions from Austria and Germany, like this August Kessler Pinot Noir Rosé Rheingau 2018, often have a little extra bouncy, bright quality to the fruit. This one had notes of strawberries, cherries, and a touch of peach. Bonus, screw cap for easy opening is par for the course with a lot if not most rosés from these countries. 

I enjoyed this one while sprawled out on the lawn gabbing with girlfriends on the lawn at the Culinary Cabin at Lake Tahoe. 

Find additional details on the wine here. 

For just a few of my many rosé-related posts, check out:

• 2 oz Pours: Looking at the World Through Rosé Colored Glasses
  
• Cooking to the Wine: Ultimate Provence Urban Rosé with Herbed Sous Vide Chicken Breasts and Roasted Eggplant Sheet Pan
  
• 2 oz Pours: Rosé After Labor Day
  
• Cooking to the Wine: Acquiesce Grenache Rosé with a Glazed Stuffed Pork Loin Roast (And A Visit to the Winery)
  

Chillable Red: Tessier Winery Soul Love 

Price: $30

I’ve shared wines made by friend Kristie Tacey of Tessier Winery before (read my interview with her here), and I love her wines in general, but in the last few years she’s added a small collection of what I lovingly like to refer to as “trippy wines” and I LOVE these. Her chillable red Soul Love is one of the trippiest and has been one of my very favorites since she started making it three years ago. The blend changes a little bit every year. The 2020 vintage pictured above was a blend of Riesling, Trousseau, and Mourvedre, while the 2021 is made up of Riesling, Mourtaou (aka Cabernet Pfeffer) and Merlot. As the blend changes, the flavors change as well, and it’s always a bit hard to describe, but let’s go with a super chuggable, magical fruit punch of strawberries, guava, berries, flowers, a hint of pineapple, and citrus fruits. (The 2021 also has a bit more tannic grip on the finish.)

This is another “happy day” wine for me that I’ll reach for during fun times or when we’re just hanging out and I happen to be in a particularly good mood. It pairs pretty easily with lots of foods. I’ve had it match easily with a roasted chicken topped with everything from a slightly sweet soy-chili glaze, bool kogi beef, pizza, and it’s even not half bad with buffalo chicken wings – not an easy food to pair. 

Chillable reds are pretty great that way. They pair with a lot of foods you really want a red wine with, but without all the heaviness that goes with a big red wine. I don’t know about you, but I typically just can’t stomach a big, alcoholic red when I’m standing around in the sun.  There are a lot of grapes that generally can take a light chill – Gamay, for example – but nowadays you can also find lots of great examples from winemakers deliberately making wines for this purpose. A lot of times, they’re crazy blends like this one, or sometimes they’re single-variety wines made in a style that sits between rosé and typical versions they might make from that grape.

On her website, she describes it as her  “glou glou” wine (it is!) and  “is a tribute to David Bowie and the ideal picnic wine.”

All of Kristie’s wines are vegan, made from sustainably grown grapes, and natural. More info here.

My friend Adriana and I recently helped pour at one of Kristie's release parties at a rooftop venue here in Oakland. The "trippy" wines were center stage and tasting fabulous.

Cans: Maker Wines 

Prices Vary.

It’s really hard to beat a canned wine for portability and convenience. They’re also perfect to pack out for a stealthy drink, when you don’t want to open a whole bottle, and/or when you don’t want to deal with glass. It’s lucky that there are more and more producers making quality versions. And then there are some trying to take it to the next level. Enter Maker Wines. This female-run company has a great mission: 

We started Maker to offer premium wine sans the snobbery. To highlight interesting varietals crafted by award-winning small producers. To tell the story of the producer that hand crafted your wine. And to package up “wine for one” in earth-conscious cans. Because we believe high-end wine isn’t just for the wealthy, distribution shouldn’t just be for the big guys, and great stories—like great wines—are meant to be shared.

Basically, they partner with quality small producers and package their wines in sleek cans,  and tell their stories via their website and info provided packaged with the wines. Even better, a lot of the wines are made from sustainably farmed grapes and/or are made by women, LGBTQ, or minority winemakers, and the info is clearly listed on the website.  The rosé pictured, which had notes of cherries, tangerines, and flowers, and the Sparkling Sauvignon Blanc – which I really enjoyed, but isn’t pictured –  were made by Chris Christensen of Bodkin. The Chenin Blanc, which had notes of white peaches, honeysuckle, and lemons is made by Colleen Sullivan Clothier of Revolutions Wines. 

We enjoyed these cans of their Rosé and their Chenin Blanc on a walk while taking in an AMAZING sunset while staying just outside Joshua Tree.

Find more on canned wines here and here.

Bonus Round: Mommenpop Blood Orange Spritz!

Price: $38

I brought back a spritz’n habit from our trip to Italy a few years ago. Thoughts of enjoying them on various piazzas at sunset around the country are among my favorite memories of our trip. I still continue to drink them throughout the summer. It’s fun to give them a twist by playing with different vermouths and bitter aperitifs. I love the Mommenpop line of aperitifs made by Samantha Sheehan, the winemaker of Poe and Ultraviolet (I recommend both),  and her husband designer Michael McDermott. They use a lot less sugar than most versions you’ll see out there and they don’t add any dyes. My favorite is the Blood Orange, but they’re all really delicious. 

We drank these with Dave and Julia by the pool on the same day the Nortico Alvarinho up at the top.

Cheers to a happy summer!  

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The rest of the Wine Pairing Weekend Blogging Group (#WinePW) is exploring summer sippers this month. Check out the rest of their posts: 

• Camilla’s posting “A Casual Feast and Canned Wines: Bo Ssäm + Two Shepherds' 2021 Maxzilla Piquette” at Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Wendy is “Sipping Rosé and Enjoying Summertime” at A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Terri’s got “Summer Time Canned Sparkling Prosecco and Pepperdew Bites” at Our Good Life
• Gwendolyn’s going with “Orange Wines for Summer Times from Austria, Mexico, Oregon, Paso Robles” at Wine Predator
• Jane offers “Summertime Nibbles with Prosecco” at Always Ravenous
• Andrea is “Sipping Pretty this Summer with Emir and Trail Mix” at The Quirky Cork
• Jeff says “Add Some Pop! to Your Summer of Rosé” at Food Wine Click!  
• Kat insists “Schiava is the Perfect Summer Red Wine for Grilling” at The Corkscrew Concierge
• Finally, Linda serves up “Washington Pinot Gris for chilling on a lazy summer afternoon” at My Full Wine Glass  

A steak dinner and a comparative tasting of four bottles of Nebbiolo – yes, please!

Please note, that some of the wines in this post were provided as media samples. No other compensation was received and all opinions are my own.

One of the great things about tasting with a group of friends is that you can open and taste a lot more bottles simultaneously without worrying that the wine will go to waste. If those friends are willing to go along with you on a wide-geeky ride, it’s also a perfect chance to do some comparative tastings. I admit that I often force friends to join me in conducting these types of experiments. Luckily, when we head off to the Culinary Cabin, only the lightest arm twisting is required. 

The Culinary Cabin is the loving name we’ve bestowed on our friends’ family vacation house in Tahoe, and the weekends we spend there tend to be all about food and wine experimentation. During our most recent trip, I “forced” my friends into a comparative tasting of four Nebbiolo-based wines “for science.” The guys in the group prepared a steak dinner to accompany the wines. Everyone was very upset.

NEBBIOLO 

Nebbiolo is Piedmont’s superstar red grape. It’s the grape behind this northern Italian region’s blockbuster wines, Barolo and Barbaresco. The grape’s trademark aromatic signature is notes of “tar and roses.” That tells you something about the combination of delicate and rustic elements this grape tends to bring together.  Tart cherries, leather, anise or licorice, earth, mushrooms, leather, and herbs are all also common flavor elements in Nebbiolo wines. I personally also often get a little orange peel in the mix. 

In addition, the grape tends the show super racy acidity and grippy tannins. While the wines tend to be deeply flavored and highly structured, the body of the wines is often sleek and can be anywhere from medium-bodied and translucent in a way that belies the punch the wines can pack in, to deep and full-bodied, depending on how it’s made and where it’s from. 

The wines often show orange color even when they’re young, but thanks to the mix of high acidity, alcohol, and tannin, the wines can easily age for decades in the bottle. In many cases, particularly in the case of Barolo and Barbaresco, the wines really need that time to chillax and can taste super tight otherwise. They’re kind of like a person that’s super anxious and wound-up in their youth, but learns to unwind and relax with age. If you don’t have the time to wait for your Barolos and Barbarescos to age in a cellar, you’ll at least want to decant them with plenty of lead time before dinner. I’ll often decant them hours in advance when I manage to think of it. The high levels of tannins and acidity also mean, in my mind anyway, that these wines are best served with a meal as these elements smooth out when enjoyed with a hearty meal. Enjoy these wines with foods that are meaty or have some fat, like creams or cheese, as these will help to calm the tannins.

We’ve taken a look at this grape several times before. Check out this post for more on the grape and this one for more on the history of Barolo. 

Nebbiolo can be a fussy grape to grow, a fact that contributes to the high prices some Nebbiolo- based wines tend to command. Nebbiolo is thought to take its name from the Italian nebbia (or nebia in Piedmontese), meaning "fog," and it really seems to relish the foggy conditions of its home region as it doesn’t seem to express itself with quite the same complexity anywhere else. (The name might also be a reference to the bloom that appears on ripe Nebbiolo berries.)

However, while it likes that fog, it also needs a good balance of sunshine as well to ripen fully, so it’s typically given the prime spots on hillsides that get the most sun exposure. It’s a diva. 

Map borrowed from Winefolly.com.

Barolo and Barbaresco might be the celebrity icons of Piedmont, however, they’re not the only show in town. It’s grown across Piedmont, as well as in Valle d’Aosta and Lombardy. While Barolo and Barbaresco tend to be pricey, thankfully, there are other Piemontese appellations making Nebbiolos that are both easier on the wallet and are approachable at a much earlier stage. Here are three: 

• Roero DOCG – This region is just across the Tanaro river from Barolo and has sandier soil. It’s known for making high-quality Nebbiolos that tend to be lighter and a bit fruitier in style with less intense tannins.

• Nebbiolo d’Alba DOC – This zone covers much of the territory of Roero but then extends further, crossing the Tanaro south of Alba to Diana d'Alba. It has similar characteristics to Roero.

• Langhe Nebbiolo DOC – Langhe is the hilly subregion of Piedmont where Barolo and Barbaresco are located.  ("Langhe" is the plural form of langa, a local word for a long, low-lying hill.) Grapes that go into Langhe Nebbiolo might come from areas just outside the borders of Barolo and Barbaresco. The wines might also be made from grapes from younger vines or from less favored plots that lie within the two famed appellations. Wines not adhering to all of the requirements of the two prestige appellations might also fall into this classification. As such, these wines are sometimes thought of as “baby” Barolos and Barbarescos. Given this, prices on Langhe Nebbiolo can vary quite a bit.

Since we’re going to look at a bottle of Langhe Nebbiolo further down, we’re going to go a little deeper here. Production rules are meant to give winemakers more flexibility than they have in making Barolo and Barbaresco, so there are no minimum aging requirements and the wines will tend to spend less time in oak than in the other two. (Basic Barolo must be aged for at least three years with 18 months in oak, and basic  Barbaresco is aged for a minimum of two years with at least 9 months in oak.) Winemakers might also leave the juice less time macerating on the grapes than in the case of the other two, making a less extracted, easier-drinking style. Sometimes, winemakers use the Langhe Nebbiolo appellation simply to make declassified  Barbaresco and Barolo wines, allowing them to sell more wine without compromising their elite labels. Production rules also allow for up to 15 percent of other indigenous grape varieties, like  Barbera and Dolcetto, but most are also made entirely from Nebbiolo.

THE FOOD: A RIBEYE CAP STEAK DINNER

The guys did most of the cooking on this particular trip. One of our hosts, Northern Drew, was the head chef, Greg and Southern Drew were the sous chef. (Each Drew is so-called dependent on where in the state of California they live.) 

On this particular evening, they made a feast centered around Northern Drew’s favorite cut of beef: ribeye cap. This is the outer muscle of the ribeye roll, which is the source of ribeye. It’s richly marbled and also super tender, so it’s kind of like a ribeye crossed with a filet mignon. (For more on this cut, read J. Kenji López-Alt’s ode in its honor.)  The guys prepared it sous vide and finished it on the grill, seasoned with salt and pepper. 

In addition, they made a slew of veggie sides including grilled asparagus, roasted cauliflower topped with gremolata,  sautéed cabbage, and  roasted sweet potatoes. We also had horseradish sauce to enjoy with the beef.

This meal did not suck. 

THE WINES

We had two Barolos (both were decanted), one Langhe Nebbiolo, and a bottle from California with this fabulous steak dinner. Here’s what was in the line-up. 

Massolino Barolo 2016

Average Price: $55 (sample)  | ABV: 14.%

The Massolino family’s history in the commune of Serralunga d’Alba dates back to 1896 when Giovanni Massolino founded the estate. Giovanni was the very first person to bring electricity to the village. His son, Giuseppe,  built their wine cellar, and he along with his sister Angela, extended the estate. Giuseppe was also one of the founders of the Consortium for the Defence of Barolo and Barbaresco in 1934. Giuseppe had six children and three of them – Giovanni, Camilla, and Renato – followed their father into the family business. They continued the estate’s expansion and purchased three of their cru vineyards: Margheria, Parafada, and Vigna Rionda. Franco, Roberto (both oenologists), and Paola represent the current generation. Their vineyards are farmed sustainably. 

Winemaking: Their Barolo DOCG represents a blend of their vineyards, each bringing different characteristics offered by each terroir. There is a blend of soils with a tendency toward limestone. This is traditional Barolo with long fermentation and maceration in oak fermenters (“tini”) at temperatures around 30°C; the wine is aged in large Slavonian oak casks for up to 30 months before being left to mature in bottle. Additional details can be found in the tech sheet here or here.

Tasting Notes: This is a classic Barolo showing the characteristic “tar and roses,” along with cherries, white pepper, and licorice. This wine showed an elegant and pretty side of Nebbiolo, showing a pleasant bright, tangy quality to the fruit, accompanied by the structure grippy tannins. One of the Drews noted that it tasted like his mental image of what he wants Barolo to taste like.  In comparison to Langhe Nebbiolo that we’ll see further down, the fruit quality was deeper, rounder, and plusher.

Pairings: This wine was generally friendly to the food on our table. No surprise, it was stellar with the steak, but it was also surprisingly ok with the asparagus, which is not a wine-friendly vegetable. 

The winery also offers the following recommendations: “It achieves its best expression when served with red meats, particularly game, and with dishes dressed with truffle. It is also excellent with fresh egg pasta and meat sauce, and with risotto, as well as medium-mature cow’s milk and goat’s milk cheeses.”

Kirkland Barolo 2017 

Price: $20 | ABV: 14%

Since Costco doesn’t share the details of the winery behind the wines, there’s no background info to share. However, as has been my general experience with their wines, this was a very solid representation of the style at a price point that can’t be beaten. The fact that it says “Kirkland” on the bottle might rule it out as an option to take to most dinner parties, but it should definitely not keep it from showing up on your dinner table. The price makes Barolo a possibility for a weeknight dinner. This is also a great option if you’d like to get an idea of what Barolo is all about without breaking the bank. 

Tasting Notes: This wine displayed the earthier side of Nebbiolo. It was the earthiest of the bunch. I picked up a little bit of brett when I first opened it up, but this quickly blew off, and then the nose became a bit shy. It showed notes of cherry, bay leaf, mushrooms, and thyme on both the nose and palate, all lifted by bright acidity. Unsurprisingly, this wine didn’t show the finesse of the Massolino Barolo, but it definitely delivers good value at $20. 

Pairings: Of course, this wine liked the steak, as they all did. However, I failed to take notes on how it went with the various veggies. This wine should also go with anything involving mushrooms.

Massolino Langhe Nebbiolo 2017

Average Price: $29 (sample) | ABV 14.5% 

The grapes for this wine come from several municipalities. As you might guess, it’s made for earlier consumption. 

Winemaking: The wine undergoes a medium period of fermentation and maceration (approximately 15 days). It ages in large Slavonian oak barrels for over a year. Additional details can be found in the tech sheet here and here.

Tasting Notes: A good representation of the fresher side of Nebbiolo. It showed notes of bright strawberries, cherries, and even a hint of cranberry on the nose and palate, along with floral notes and freshly tilled earth and stony minerality. While this was certainly a lighter expression in comparison to the Massolino Barolo, Nebbiolo’s structure wasn’t lacking and the wine still showed good density and grip.  

Pairings: Good with the steak of course, but this one paired quite well with bites involving horseradish as well. It was also quite good with many of the veggies. The wine became lighter and brighter alongside the roasted cauliflower with gremolata. 

Here are additional pairing recommendations from the winery: “Ideal throughout a meal but at its best when served with rich, tasty dishes, ranging from fresh-egg pasta with meat or vegetable sauces to grilled or roasted red meats. It is also excellent with soft and delicate blue cheeses.”

Lepiane Nebbiolo Alisos Vineyard 2015

Price: $49 (sample) 

I’ve shared a couple of wines from Alison Thomas’s Lepiane line in the past, so I’ll refer you here and here for more details on this one-woman operation in Santa Barbara, California. To be honest with you, I’m not typically the biggest fan of California Nebbiolos, but I thought it would be fun to have one in the line-up and this is usually one of the better examples, IMHO. Sadly, the wine wasn’t showing so well on this particular day, but I don’t really think it was its fault. I’d Coravin’d this bottle to AGES before and I think the gas cartridge had been running low because the fruit in the wine was a little flat, it was a touch oxidized, and overall, it lacked the vibrancy I’d previously experienced with it. 

Winemaking: Elevage occurred in a 600L neutral barrel for 33 months before being bottled without any fining or filtration. An additional 20 months of bottle aging allows this wine to show its beautifully complex nature. Organically farmed. Additional details here.

Tasting Notes: Since the wine wasn’t showing so well this evening, my tasting note is from my previous tasting of the wine. The wine reminds me of fall with notes of dried flowers, orange zest, and cranberries on the nose. The fruit is bright on the palate and joined by notes of black pepper, herbs, and the characteristic “tar and roses.”  

Pairings: It was good with the steak, of course. It was also good with the sweet potatoes, but it did not like the cauliflower. 

Go forth and explore the many sides of Nebbiolo!

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For more posts related to Nebbiolo, check out these posts:

• Italian Wine 101 Cheat Sheet
  
• Cooking to the Wine: Fontanafredda Barolo and Braised Short Ribs with Mushrooms
  
• Touring & Dining at Marchesi di Barolo
  
• An Anniversary Celebration with La Spinetta Vürsù Gallina Barbaresco and Braised Spatchcocked Duck
  
• Cozy Date Night In with Gnocchi with Easy Pork Ragù
  

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The writers of the Italian Food, Wine, and Travel (#ItalianFWT) blogging group have been exploring the wines of Langhe this month. Check out their posts here:

• Wendy Klik highlights Beef and Pork Ravioli, A Book Review and a Nebbiolo from Langhe on A Day in the Life on the Farm 
• Camilla Mann pairs Spicy Mussels Chorizo + 2017 Villadoria Bricco Magno Langhe Nebbiolo at Culinary Adventures with Camilla 
• Linda Whipple entices with Of Nebbiolo, Salami and a Langhe Farmer’s Dream at My Full Wine Glass
•  Jen Martin gives us a glimpse with an Overview of the Langhe Wines at Vino Travels
• Gwendolyn Alley introduces us to the “Queens of Langhe: Mother Daughter Duo Anna and Valentina Abbona of Marchesi di Barolo” on Wine Predator.
• Host Cindy Rynning entices us to Explore a New-to-You Wine – Nas-Cëtta from the Langhe in Piemonte” at Grape Experiences.

Additional sources used for this post and extra reading: 

• JancisRobinson.com
  
• Wine-searcher.com
  
• Winefolly.com - Nebbiolo: The Grape of Barolo and So Much More
  
• NY Times.com - Your Next Lesson: Langhe Nebbiolo
  
• Winefolly.com: Nebbiolo
  
• Forbes.com: The Serralunga Style Guide - Barolo Power (Part One)
  
• WineScholarGuild.org: Barolo Communes