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Noble Prizes: Nebbiolo Nobile
Stuart George
After the fire that destroyed the Palace of Whitehall in 1698, the Widow Bourne established a grocer’s shop at No. 3 St James’s Street in central London. This grocer’s shop is now Berry Bros. & Rudd, which has strong claims to being the UK’s or even the world’s oldest wine merchant business.
The eighth – and probably the tallest – generation to work for this distinguished business is David Berry Green. Since 2009 David has lived and worked in Serralunga d’Alba, where he is able to pursue his passion for the great Nebbiolo wines of Piedmont. “Everyone seems to have heard of Barolo and Barbaresco but very few people seem to realise that they’re made from Nebbiolo,” he says. “For me it is the unsung hero of Italy’s great wines.”
In addition to Barolo and Barbaresco, Nebbiolo wines are made under the Langhe Nebbiolo and Nebbiolo d'Alba DOCs, which typically cost half as much as the two killer Bs. Requiring less ageing than Barolo or Barbaresco, they are not as dauntingly tannic and provide useful cash flow for winemakers whose top wines might not be released until five years after the vintage.
Nebbiolo d’Alba DOC was established in 1970 and must be 100% Nebbiolo and aged for 12 months. It can be “declassified” to Langhe Nebbiolo, the wider-reaching DOC that was introduced in 1995 as a de facto “second wine” option for Barbaresco and Barolo producers.
Of course this being Italy meant that the new legislation quickly became as tangled as a bowl of spaghetti, with Langhe Chardonnay and Langhe Arneis, among many others, soon appearing. Allowing the wines to include up to 15% of non-Nebbiolo juice and not specifying minimum ageing requirements compromised the integrity of the Langhe Nebbiolo DOC. The result was a mishmash of wine styles that looks like a traffic jam in Turin.
Leaving aside Italian wine politics, David Berry Green was so impressed by the quality of Langhe Nebbiolo and Nebbiolo d'Alba that he conceived a plan to showcase them to an international audience of buyers and writers. So, on 13 April, he presented a tasting of 52 wines, followed by a seminar, in the Castello di Serralunga d’Alba.
Highlights of the tasting included a smoothly textured 2009 Nebbiolo d’Alba from Renato Ratti and firmly tannic 2008s by Bricco Maiolica, Edoardo Sobrino and Beppi Colla.
The Langhe wines, which are essentially declassified Barolo or Barbaresco, were on the whole a bit better than the Alba examples, with superior concentration and structure, though some were rather atypical. The chocolate and coffee aromas of the 2009 Langhe Nebbiolo Bricco Maiolica (again) were reminiscent of the chocolate-scented air of Alba, where the Ferrero Rocher factory churns out Kinder Surprises and Nutella.
Chionetti’s 2009 was suspiciously purple in colour – not how “classic” Nebbiolo should look. Maybe there was a bit of Dolcetto in that 15% concession. Cascina delle Rose’s, Pier’s, Marchesi di Gresy’s and Produttori del Barbaresco’s 2009s were all fine-grained and typical of the modern, user-friendly style of Nebbiolo.
Elio Altare’s 2009 Langhe Nebbiolo had pulsing acidity and, to my admittedly myopic eyes, a slightly cloudy colour. It tasted good, though. Some of the wines were more tar than roses, such as those of Domenico Clerico and Ettore Germano, two eminent producers who are left of centre in the debate about the use of new oak with Nebbiolo.
It was a varied bunch. As Berry Green put it, “There was a notable difference between those Nebbiolo wines conceived as such in the vineyard and then vinified through to an early drinking wine and those producers who make it as an afterthought – a Barolo or Barbaresco declassified after a couple of years’ ageing, a wine cut off at the knees to suit the market, neither fish nor fowl, neither early drinking nor built for ageing.”
Over 50 Nebbioli before lunch is a challenging proposition. With teeth as black as if they had been dyed in pitch, the main speakers managed to stand up and deliver considered and amusing speeches. UK wine writer Margaret Rand, Pietro Ratti, the head of the Consorzio di Tutela Barolo Barbaresco Alba Langhe e Roero, and UK importer Michael Palij MW led the discussion.
The debate was largely concerned with whether the wines should be marketed as “second wine” Barolo and Barbaresco, which might undermine the “B” brands, or whether their Nebbiolo heritage should be promoted, in which case they become disassociated from the big Bs (except, as Palij pointed out, “buono”). Palij also suggested that we ignore the debate about “modern” or “traditional” producers of Nebbiolo and instead concentrate on making “good” wine.
Not much Nebbiolo is made in Australia – the only ones that I can recall tasting were from Brown Brothers and Dromana – or indeed anywhere else outside north-east Italy. It is a very particular grape and wine. “There are some wonderful, finely-laced wines here that really don’t get out into the wider world”, Berry Green asserts. “I want people out there to get to know Nebbiolo and not be daunted by the power and price of Barolo and Barbaresco.”
Stuart George
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