NEB#5 Overview
The fifth get-together of NEB (Nebbiolo Enthusiasts & Believers), NEB#5, was held on Fri/Sat, April 3-4, in Woodside. Hosting the Friday event of mostly winemakers was Tommy Fogarty and Nathan Kandler at the Fogarty Wnry events centre, with a spectacular view overlooking their vineyards and the Silicon Vlly.
The Saturday public event was held at the Domenico Wnry, down in San Carlos, hosted by Dominick Chirichillo and Michael Annunziato.
Friday
After a brief introduction and welcome by Tommy, we plunged right into tasting three flights of six wines:
Thomas Fogarty WalkerVnyd/SCM Nebbiolo 2009
CastelliVnyds RanchoSisquoc MichetClone Nebbiolo 2009
DomenicoWnry SierraRidgeVnyd/SutterCreek/AmadorCnty (14.7%) Nebbiolo 2009
BuonaVita RussianRiverVlly Nebbiolo 2009
Bargetto LaVita (15% Nebbiolo/60% Dolcetto/25% Refosco) 2010
Ethan StolpmanVnyd/BallardCanyon Nebbiolo 2010
Giornata LunaMattaVnyd/PasoRobles Nebbiolo 2011
Tocatta LosAlamos/SantaBarbaraCnty Nebbiolo 2011
Harrington 50% LunaMatta & Berardo vnyds/PasoRobles Nebbiolo (14.1%) 2012
WilRidge WilridgeVnyd/NachesHeights/WashState Nebbiolo (13.6%; Biodynamic) 2012 Roso d'Oro NovaVnyd/YoloCnty Nebbiolo 2012
Idlewild FoxHillVnyd/MendoCnty 2012
Tocatta Nebbiolo (Barrel Sample; 38 yr old own-rooted vines) 2013
Thomas Fogarty Nebbiolo (Barrel Sample) 2013
GreenValleyVillage Nebbiolo 2013
DomenicoWnry AmadorCnty Nebbiolo (Barrel Sample) 2013
Bargetto ReganVnyd/Coralitas Nebbiolo (Barrel Sample) 2013
VJB SonomaVlly Nebbiolo 2013
The tasting was not blind and before each wine, the winemaker described a bit about how the wine was made. Louis Lucas gave a rather detailed description of the various trellising systems he's used over the years for his Nebbiolo and how he thinks he's finally got it figured out.
After the tasting was completed, we adjourned for a catered buffet lunch, allowing us to retaste some of the wines. Plus sample a few other singletons that appeared. This was followed by a tour of the Nebbiolo planting there on the Estate. This is at a pretty high altitude and Fogarty has difficulty ripening those grapes every year. They have another Nebbiolo planting about 20 miles further south at a lower altitude that is more successful in ripening. The tour of this vineyard was cancelled.
Saturday
Many of the Nebbiolo winemakers feel like the public should be better informed of their efforts with this tricky grape, so a tasting of their Nebbiolos was hosted at Domenico Wnry down in San Carlos. This public tasting, from 11:00am till 2:00pm, was advertised mostly thru the Domenico mailing list, plus a notice on several wine boards and a wine events calendar. The wineries pouring their Nebbiolos are listed below. There were probably some 50-60 members of the public who showed up to try these Nebbiolos.
Attendees at NEB#5 (23 in number)
Tommy Fogarty/Fogarty Wnry
Nathan Kandler/Fogarty Wnry
Marshal White/Fogarty Wnry
Louis Lucas/Toccata Wnry
Ken Zinns/Harrington Wnry
Wes Barton/Harrington Wnry
Joe Healy/BuonaVita Wnry
Michael Annunziato/Domenico Wnry
Dominick Chirichillo/Domenico Wnry
Emilio Castelli/Castelli Vnyds
Bobby Granisco/Bargetto Wnry
Sam Bilbro/Idlewild Wnry
Robin Porter/SCM Nebb grower
Mark Porter/SCM Nebb grower
Brent Walker/RRV Nebb grower w/ Emilio
Pietro Buttitta/Rosa d'Oro Wnry
Kerri Green/Rosa d'Oro
Brian Terrizzi/Giornata Wnry
Stephy Terrizzi/Giornata Wnry
Fred Swan/NorCalWine.com blogger
Elaine Brown/WakaWakaWineReviews.com blogger
RichardJennings/RJOnWine.com blogger
TomHill/GreenCurtain Guy
Pouring at NEB#5 Public Tasting (no listing of the wines poured)
Marshall White/Fogarty Wnry
Brian Harrington/Harrington Wnry
Ken Zinns/Harrington Wnry
Wes Barton/Harrington Wnry
Joe Healy/BuonaVita Wnry
Michael Annunziato/Domenico Wnry
Dominick Chirichillo/Domenico Wnry
Emilio Castelli/Castelli Vnyds
Bryan Terrizzi/Giornata Wnry
Stephy Terrizzi/Giornata Wnry
Ken Musso/Due Vigne Wnry
TomHill/GreenCurtain Guy for Idlewild/Rosa d'Oro/Toccata
A Few Observations
I thought the NEB#5 event went very smoothly, especially in view of how short a notice there was in getting it organized. There is a great deal of collegiality amongst the Nebbiolo winemakers and growers. The Nebbiolos struck me as the highest quality they've been thus far. For the most part, the winemakers have nailed the wonderful floral/lilacs/violets aromatics that make Nebbiolo such a wonderful grape variety. And, by and large, they have avoided the harsh tannic bite that many of the Italian versions exhibit, have kept the oak levels modest, have quit worrying about achieving a dark color, and allowed the terroir to show thru to some extent (it is claimed by some that Nebbiolo reflects its terroir more than any other grape...though I've found no basis for that claim). What we don't usually find is that pungent/road tar aromatics of Nebbiolo that is found in many of the Italian renditions. But, then, the USofA is not Italy, so there is no expectation for our Nebbiolos to mimic those of Italy. I've often wondered if more whole-cluster fermentations might bring out some of those tarry savory elements.
I was particularly pleased by the Nebbiolo tasting for the public. There were probably 50-60 people who showed up, more than twice the number of the public event down in PasoRobles. Being near a large urban environment probably helped this.
I made a particular effort to elicit feedback from the attendees. Most of them had tasted few, if any, US Nebbiolos. They seemed particularly impressed with both their quality and the large diversity in styles (that terroir thing??) the wines showed. This public tasting aspect of NEB should be emphasized in the future, I feel. One of the problems in gaining traction with Nebbiolo in the USofA is getting people to try them with an open mind. Many Nebbiolo lovers are fond of Barolo/Barbesco as the only expression of that grape and refuse to acknowledge any other renditions of the variety, even from Italy. The one Langhe lover there who I know even commented how good the wines being poured were and was willing to accept that they weren't Langhe Nebbiolos; but that they were good Nebbiolos in their own right and expressive of the variety.
It's been noted in the past that there is a certain lack of organization to NEB, to which I would agree. I have some thoughts going forward as to what can be done to improve the event and the NEB organization which I will share in the future.
Dominick Chirichillo as expressed an interest in hosting NEB#6 at Domenico Wnry next year.
A special “thank you” to Tommy & Nathan of Fogarty and Dominick & Michael of Domenico for their huge efforts that made this NEB#5 such a success.
Tom