2006 Novy Stolpman Vineyard Nebbiolo

While it truly may be good to be king, sometimes imagining yourself a Knight tilting at windmills is sufficient. Such is the case as we try to work with Nebbiolo, the great grape of Piedmont.

Those of you who have followed the winery for awhile are aware of our rather humorous beginnings with Nebbiolo, some of which we detailed in our newsletter a year ago. Despite the seemingly lighthearted start, we take producing Nebbiolo very seriously and are extremely pleased with the progress our efforts have made.

The greatest challenge with Nebbiolo is taming the tannins. This cannot be done completely nor, perhaps, should it be done as it is part of the character of the grape. We fermented the 2006 Nebbiolo is small half-ton picking bins, extended the cold soak period to almost two weeks, and punched down the skins very frequently, but very gently during this
period. Once fermentation began, we reduced punch downs to once a day and only to get the cap wet.

We aged the wine in older French oak, racking it only twice and bottled it after 22 months.The 2006 Novy Stolpman Vineyard Nebbiolo is a lightly colored wine, but it full of red fruits, floral, rose petal notes, and even hints of earth. On the finish the tannins come on but never overwhelm the wine. This wine cries out for some time in the cellar and also for
some lamb or other hearty foods.

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