I myself was Fine Wine Manager Imports for the largest wine store in the Southern Hemisphere in the late 80s in Tooronga Victoria.
The point being I have tasted and had the opportunity to drink some of the best Italian wines being brought into Australia and have continued to use these wines as a guide and benchmark for any Australian version of the grape verities used.
As such; I am hard to impress when it comes to my personal love of the Nebbiolo grape, a wine that can capture one’s complete attention with a single Sniff.
The Alpine Valley is a wine region situated in the north-east of Victoria and its neighbours are Beechworth and King Valley, so it is well suited to Italian verities.
Paula Pipan and Radley Steel are so dedicated to Nebbiolo, that is all they grow in their vineyard planted to three or four selected Nebbiolo clones best suited to the Vineyard.
Now to the wine at hand:
PIPAN STEEL NEBBIOLO
Nebbiolo Clone X
2018
On the Nose:
I found cola, rose and tar a dark soil character, tobacco cleansing acidity the sort of things I would possibly find in a Nebbiolo from Italy.
In the Mouth:
The wine was layered with the perfume of warm bitumen flowing across the palate, this wine is no shrinking violet although still tight with firm rounded tannins.
The wine has a distinctive savoury character running the length of the palate something most Australian versions sadly lack.
Myself I found this wine too closely resemble the body and weight of a Langhe Nebbiolo as much as any Australian version possibly can.
This is the fuller bodied wine out of the three rather different wines I tasted, Clone X, Clone lX, and Tesoro a blend of all three clones. All three wines are completely different an well worth tracking down.
I enjoyed this wine with a slow cooked beef with field mushroom and white bean casserole.
It’s a pleasure to drink an Australian Nebbiolo without the rich chocolate taste of McLaren Vale soil running through the palate.
Michael Lillis
The rot has set in.
TAGG GIG GUIDE
