Feature Article from the July 2017 Magazine Issue
California Nebbiolo Producers Share Challenges and Rewards
NEB group holds meeting in Clarksburg
by Ted Rieger
Nebbiolo grower and winemaker Ken Musso of Due Vigne di Famiglia hosted the 2017 NEB meeting at his winery's tasting room at the Old Sugar Mill in Clarksburg. Photo: Ted Rieger
Clarksburg, Calif.—The seventh meeting of the informal group known as NEB (Nebbiolo Enthusiasts and Believers) was held at the Old Sugar Mill wine complex in Clarksburg last month and hosted by Nebbiolo producer and Due Vigne di Familia winery owner Ken Musso.
Often called finicky, the noble Italian variety Nebbiolo has a reputation as a challenging grape for both growers and winemakers. In the vineyard, it can produce variable yields from season to season, is often low yielding and can be late ripening. Nebbiolo can be slow to ferment, has high acidity, tends to be high in tannin and can require long-term barrel aging. Extracting and retaining color can be a challenge. Positive characteristics of good vintages are excellent aromatics of violets, cherry and berry fruits; good tannin structure with a grippy mouthfeel and deep color. It can age well for many years and often gets better with age.
The 2017 NEB meeting was attended by artisan California producers from Santa Barbara County to Mendocino County on the coast, and inland from Clarksburg and the Sierra Foothills. Nebbiolo production is small in California, with less than 200 acres planted. The 2016 California Grape Crush Report shows 512 tons crushed.
Producers at the meeting described their growing and winemaking practices while pouring samples representing a range of production techniques and wine styles. Many producers discussed their extended—and ongoing—learning curve with Nebbiolo, with trial and error over several years and the need to adapt to variations in yield and quality from season to season. California Nebbiolos have shown quality improvement and better consistency over time, perhaps related to the maturation of vineyards and more winemaker experience.
The NEB meeting also featured a tasting of Italian-produced Nebbiolos led by Sacramento grocer/wine retailer and Italian wine expert Darrell Corti, and by Italian wine specialty importer Oliver McCrum, who is based in Berkeley, Calif. While Nebbiolo is often associated with the well-known, big and long-lived Barolos and Barbarescos grown in Italy’s Piedmont region, it is also grown in other regions and made in a wide range of styles: lighter table wines, rosés, spumante, sweeter wines and blends. Corti, who said, “Nebbiolo has many faces,” also pointed out, “Nebbiolo has a good fragrance that can be enhanced by keeping the wine sweet.”
Discussing today’s wine styles from both Italy and California, Corti observed, “People’s tastes change more rapidly than wines change. We’re now in a period where people want to drink a range of wines, not just a monolithic wine.” He also observed, “I’m happy to see that my customers are accepting lighter colored wines and realizing the depth of color of some wines has no connection with flavor.”
While some California producers are attracted to Nebbiolo because it provides a personal challenge, for others, the grape represents a more personal connection with their Italian heritage.
Due Vigne, El Dorado County
Ken Musso of Due Vigne di Familia Winery took on the challenge to plant Nebbiolo in the Sierra Foothills after learning that his family in Italy had been growing Nebbiolo and Barbera for generations. He has grown Nebbiolo for 20 years at 2,400 feet elevation on his 5-acre Musso Family Vineyard in El Dorado County, which experiences a wide diurnal temperature change during the growing season. The property is planted with Italian varieties such as 2.5 acres of Nebbiolo that generally yields no more than 4 tons annually. Vines are spaced 6-feet by 6-feet, and rows are planted up and down with the slope to allow air movement along the rows for frost protection. Originally planted with a vertical shoot positioned (VSP) trellis, the canopy is now draped over the south-facing side to protect clusters from sunburn.
“We pick based on acid, not on Brix, and look for a pH of 3.25. But we don’t always get that, so we work with what we get,” Musso said.
The latest release, the 2014 vintage, went through a five-day cold soak for extraction and a seven-day fermentation. The wine was aged two years in neutral oak with 125 cases produced. With some vintages, a percentage of new oak is used, and sometimes Barbera has been blended, ranging from 4% to 12%. Musso recently planted the Italian variety Vespolina that will be available for blending in the future. Musso observed: “We’re not necessarily trying to make an Italian-style Nebbiolo, we’re working with what our California climate gives us. One of the great things about Nebbiolo is that it expresses its place.” Musso also noted, “We used to tell customers the wine would age from five to 10 years, but our older vintages still continue to get better.”
Sonoma County producers
Emilio Castelli of Castelli Vineyards moved from his native Italy near Lake Como to Sonoma County, Calif., in 1995. His dry-farmed vineyards in the Green Valley AVA were planted in 1997, with additional vines planted in 2001, 2007 and 2013. He says, “Dry farming is a very important aspect; it better expresses what California gives.”
Castelli’s vineyard is no-till, he uses no fertilizer, and he hasn’t sprayed since 2011. He said Nebbiolo is easily sunburned. He ferments with native yeast undergoing a cold soak period and is able to ferment to dryness. The wine is aged 36 to 48 months in neutral French oak before bottling. In 2012, he produced about 75 cases of an estate Nebbiolo from his early plantings, and he separately produced and bottled 30 cases of “Fosco” from newer estate plantings. Castelli also purchases Nebbiolo from Olof Vineyard in Lake County, Calif., and from Luna Matta Vineyard in Paso Robles, Calif., to produce separate releases totaling another 120 cases. The wines range in price from $16 to $34 per bottle.
Charlie Tsegeletos, winemaker for Jacuzzi Family Vineyards in Sonoma, sources Nebbiolo from two estate sites: one in Carn
eros, and one in the Sonoma Coast AVA. Both sites were planted in 1997 and together total 5.5 acres. The vines were later changed from spur pruned to cane pruned, which helped improve yield, though they still only produce 2 to 3 tons per acre. The first wine was produced from the 2002 vintage. Annual production totals up to 600 cases, sold mostly through the tasting room and wine club. Native fermentations have been used since 2015. Tsegeletos seeks to ferment the wine “bone dry” to 13% to 14% alcohol. The wine is enhanced by blending in 10% Alicante Bouschet and by aging up to 35% in new American oak. It has good tannins and holds up well with age, he says. “This is a bottle of wine that lives to be paired with food.”
Idlewild, Mendocino Nebbiolo
Idlewild Wines based in Healdsburg, Calif., produces Nebbiolo from Fox Hill Vineyard in Mendocino County, where it was planted over several years in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Winemaker Sam Bilbro has experimented with different processing regimes in past vintages, but the current-release 2013 vintage was kept simpler, with destemmed berries fermented with native yeast and native malolactic bacteria. The wine was aged in neutral oak 20 months, and aged nine months in bottle. The 2013 sells for $40 per bottle, and 148 cases were produced. It’s lighter in color but has good tannin and astringency. As Bilbro observed: “There’s color. It’s not real dark, but I’d give up color any day to get the aromatics this wine has. For me, what makes Nebbiolo so special, is how graceful it can be in its aromatics.”
New Central Coast producers
Winemaker Alison Thomson started her L.A. Lepiane Wines brand in Santa Barbara County, Calif., in 2013 named in tribute to her great grandfather, Luigi A. Lepiane, who migrated from Italy in 1891 and owned a grocery store and winery in Hollister. Visits to Italy inspired Thomson’s passion for Nebbiolo and Italian wines. She met renowned Barbaresco and Barolo producer Angelo Gaja while studying for her master’s degree in viticulture at the University of California, Davis. She later worked a harvest in Piedmont. She’s worked at several Santa Barbara County wineries including Palmina Vineyards, where she produced Nebbiolos over several vintages from area vineyards.
Her first Lepiane Nebbiolo, a 2013 vintage sourced from the Rancho Sisquoc Vineyard in Santa Barbara County, is expected to be released this fall. Fermented with native yeast and pressed off after 32 days, the wine took two years to finish malolactic fermentation. It aged 33 months in neutral oak and will be aged in bottle about 15 months before release.
Mark and Robin Porter, owners of Lago Lomita Vineyards in Los Gatos attended the NEB meeting for edification as new, in-progress Nebbiolo producers. They planted 3 acres in their 2,500 foot elevation vineyard in the Santa Cruz Mountains and hope to harvest their first estate crop this year.
NEB is coordinated by wine enthusiast Tom Hill, based in Los Alamos, N.M., who contributes tasting notes from his wine travels to websites and blogs. The first NEB meeting was held in 2009 in Sonoma County and is now held almost annually in different Nebbiolo producing locations throughout California.
