Italy’s Royalty in the Clouds
Several hundred feet above sea level, in the high hills of Northwest Italy,
resides a mysterious grape that thrives in one of the most spectacular
wine regions in the world. Rolling hills that stroll all the way up to the
base of the snow capped Alps separating Italy from France are the
landscape that comprises the area known as Piedmonte, where the
Nebbiolo grape calls home. Italian royalty long proclaimed the wines
made from these grapes “the wine of kings and the king of wines”. I think
I know why they still treat these wines like royalty today in Italy. I can
imagine that when you think of Italian wines, especially red wines, the first
ones that come to mind are Chianti’s or Super-Tuscans and Brunello di
Montalcino’s, all of which come from the Sangiovese grape. Well sure,
they hog up most of the press and retail shelf spaces in your local wine
store, but if you ask the average Italian, they will tell you that there is only
one king of wine grapes in Italy and that king is Nebbiolo.
One of the main reasons that Cabernet Sauvignon has become so revered
worldwide is its strong tannic backbone and brazen ability to improve with
bottle age. Long bottle age. In this aspect, Cabernet has very few grape
competitors with the same ability to last decades, but wait, not so fast, the
Italian’s have their own tannic monster. Given a wine made from a
reputable producer in a fantastic vintage, Nebbiolo wines can last for over
three decades in the bottle and believe me, those that can wait that long
will reap the benefits of a wine that has truly come of age. Unfortunately,
the very thing that makes the Nebbiolo wines noble is the very reason it
remains largely undiscovered by the wine drinking masses throughout the
world. People in today’s frantic world don’t want to wait a decade or two
to enjoy a good bottle of wine. They want something that they can drink
now or at least in a year or two. Cabernet Sauvignon producers have
adapted to this by making both styles of Cabs, ones that can age for
decades and those that may be enjoyed right away. It’s just not that easy
to do the same with Nebbiolo wines.
Some Nebbiolo producers that realize this problem are taking steps to
make the necessary changes in order to make wines that are more
approachable in the short term. To do this however, compromises some of
the very things that make Nebbiolo wines unique and special. The results
are mixed, as many consumers are still not familiar with the wines. They
may be better off sticking with what they do best.
Wines made from Nebbiolo are broken down to five distinct regions and
names. Of the five, you are more likely to come in contact with four,
Nebbiolo d’ Alba, Nebbiolo Langhe, Barolo and Barbaresco. The latter
two, Barolo and Barbaresco are the two greatest and most expensive wine
regions, but worth every penny. Wines made from Nebbiolo will display
the grape name on the bottle, but not those made from Barolo or
Barbaresco. Because of the level of prestige in these two regions, only
the name Barolo or Barbaresco will appear on the bottle along with the
name of the producer.
Although Nebbiolo wines are very tannic, those wines made in the regions
outside Barolo and Barbaresco can be consumed in a fairly short period of
time. If you are someone that really enjoys a big beefy young Cabernet or
Syrah, chucked full of tannins, then these Nebbiolo’s should be no problem
for you. Three to four years out from the vintage date would be ideal of
course.
As I mentioned before, some Nebbiolo wines may last for decades in the
bottle. The wines I was referring to are the ones made in Barbaresco and
especially Barolo, which is the most tannic and long-lived Nebbiolo wine of
all. Whether a vintage was a blockbuster one or just an average one,
these wines will be expensive. They start at forty dollars and stop just
short of four hundred. You might think that is ridiculous, and if you do, I
wouldn’t blame you. The fact of the matter is though, if you had a certain
cherished perishable that could last three decades or more, you could
certainly see how it would increase in value over the years. The fact that
these wines need time to come into their own is frustrating to both the
consumer and I guess the Italian winemaker looking to make a quick
buck, but it is a wine that rewards patience to even the most finicky wine
connoisseur. It never loses its deep purple color in the center, but takes
on a light orange hue around the rim of the glass, letting you know, its time
to have a sample.
The Barolo and Barbaresco regions in Italy are high up in the hills. From
the vineyards, you can literally see the breathtaking base of the Alps in
the far off background. The landscape is more beautiful than one can
imagine. The summers are warm, but the evenings are cool. Beginning in
late August and continuing late into the fall, a cloud-like fog settles in over
the valleys just below the hilltops. It is a setting that would make one feel
as if they were on top of the world looking down into the clouds. It is from
this fog that the grape receives its name Nebbiolo. ‘Nebbia’ is the Italian
word for ‘fog’. Cool weather coupled with fog would normally spell almost
certain disaster for most wine grapes, but the Nebbiolo grape is a tough
and hearty one. It takes an unusually long time to ripen and is picked
much later than most wine grapes, often not being harvested until the
middle of October. By contrast, most grapes are harvested around the
first of September. That may not seem like a long-time to you, but in the
life of a grape, days pass like years and harvesting grapes a day too late
can mean disaster in a winery.
In Piedmonte Italy, there is actually something else in the ground that they
are world renowned for. Chefs in top restaurants and specialty gourmet
shops clamor for it. To find and locate them requires a specially trained
dog with a powerful sniffer. These buried treasures located under the hard
and unforgiving soils are called truffles. No, not the ones you buy at the
Godiva chocolate store in the mall (although, those are worth dying for in
their own right!), I am talking about the mushroom-like organism that grow
underground and are used to flavor prized dishes that only the five star
restaurants create. You are probably wondering, “What on earth do
truffles have to do with Nebbiolo wines?” Okay, I’ll tell you. Grapevines
will dig deep below the surface in search of water and nutrients. Often as
deep as thirty feet or more. That is why grapevines thrive in poor soiled
areas where so many other vegetation fails. Somehow, along the way,
they can pass on the subtlest hints of flavors passed on from the
organisms that share the surrounding earth. Frequently, you can taste
Eucalyptus in wines that are made from vineyards that have been planted
in a Eucalyptus tree field. No matter what it is, there can be the slightest
trace of something that effects the taste of the wine made from specific
vineyards. Nebbiolo vines share the earth around them with these rare
truffles and subsequently impart a little of those truffle flavors in the wines
that they produce. So you see, when you have a Nebbiolo wine, you are
drinking some really rare and expensive in a round about way!
Speaking of flavors common in Nebbiolo wines, you will find all kinds of
unique aromas in the glass. They comprise of a complex bouquet of roses
and violets. Bright and freshly picked red and black cherries followed up
with licorice, tar, leather and then rounded off with an assortment of spices
that may indeed include cinnamon, vanilla and green pepper. Since the
grape itself is already highly tannic, it is rarely if ever aged in small oak
barrels. This would make the wine almost unbearably tannic. Instead,
giant barrels several feet high that have been seasoned with salt water are
used to age the wines. The flavors that they impart are barely noticeable,
but do add to the depth and overall structure of the wine.
Another thing that I find completely fascinating about the Nebbiolo grape
is that it does not travel well. What I mean by that is that outside of the
Piedmonte region in Italy, it just doesn’t grow and produce great wines.
California and Australia are continually trying to prove that theory wrong,
but to date, they have both been quite unsuccessful. I find this particularly
interesting that in certain parts of California, like Carneros (Napa) and the
Russian River Valley (Sonoma), the climate and conditions would appear
to be very similar to those in Piedmonte. Not only are these regions up in
the hills and contain low-lying valleys, they also have fog that they have to
contend with. Both of these regions in California have proven to be very
successful with Pinot Noir wines, which is a grape that probably shares the
most in common with Nebbiolo in terms of growing conditions, etc…
However, for every marginal success story of Nebbiolo wines made in
California there are literally a hundred more failures. The fact that only
Italy can make high quality Nebbiolo wines makes it special and
intriguing.
The Italians that produce Nebbiolo wines realize that they make a wine
that is not for everyone and they don’t apologize for that. There are only
seven million bottles of Nebbiolo wines produced a year, which is a drop in
the bucket compared to other wine varietals in other wine regions. That
means there are relatively few on the market for you and I to sample. You
can see now why they tend to be a little expensive. They also know that
they will sell their Barolo’s and Barbaresco’s, even if it is only to the
collectors and wine connoisseurs. Maybe someday, other wine producing
nations will find the key to unlock the potential for producing great
Nebbiolo wines, but for now, Nebbiolo prefers to stay on its throne, high
atop their hillside palace overlooking the puffy white clouds of fog, in
Piedmonte, Italy.
