The 2008 The Nebb has finally completed the long journey to sale. The 2008 vintage was trying with hot conditions resulting in a lot lower crop than anticipated; down by 50% on the 2007 vintage. Consequently, only 162 dozen made it into bottle. The Nebb continues to wander far and wide, from Vaucluse Cellars in Sydney to bottle shops in Denmark. The wandering sales of The Nebb, lower crops in combination with pre-ordered export, and distributor sales has resulted in only 55 dozen being available for sale to the mailing list this year, so first in best dressed!

The 2008 The Nebb is the first vintage to have Adelaide Hills sourced Nebbiolo used as part of the blend. Grown in Woodside this component of Nebbiolo shows lifted rose petal characters, as well as great acidity and a whack of fine tannin throughout the length of the palate. The 2008 The Nebb is reminiscent of the 2006 The Nebb, with pronounced mandarin peel, chocolate and Turkish delight notes on the nose. The palate retains good acidity and tannin without being as tight a wine as the 2007 The Nebb. The wine definitely benefits from some time in a decanter.

2009 Onwards

The 2009 vintage has seen a return to pre 2008 production levels of approximately 300 dozen. 2009 also saw the introduction of another Nebbiolo fruit source from Jones Block (Paxton Family) on the ridge near d’Arenberg. This fruit is of similar characters to the Nebbiolo sourced from Blewitt Springs, but with greater depth of flavour and colour. 2009 also saw the introduction of some longer skin contact with a small parcel of Jones Block fruit as traditionally undertaken in pre-modernist Barolo. In fact post fermentation the fruit was left on skins for 14 weeks, meaning the Nebb’s vintage did not actually finish until mid June in 2009. This has improved the colour, flavour, and particularly the tannin weight.

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Summer was mild and then in January there was a thunderstorm that produced between 40-50mm rain.  Harvest started early with tonnage being down significantly due to the near drought conditions.

The best hope for 2007 was that fruit was sourced from Blewitt Springs at the high end of the McLaren Vale Basin. Blewitt Springs at an altitude between 159 to 250m and has very deep sandy soils causing the vines roots to search deep up to 10m.

Any rain that falls or irrigation that is applied is readily taken up by the huge masses of roots. The seasons drought saw the lack rainfall have the positive effect on keeping berries small. The little rain that fell during the drought has kept the vines going better than their clay soiled cousins closer to the sea. Growers in that area were probably some of the happiest in Australia with both good quality and close to average grape yields. In 2007 Blewitt Springs would be the safe bet for the best quality fruit in McLaren Vale. When you consider the widespread effects of drought across Southern Australia, it may just be the best of the lot.

It is an area renowned for its ability to sustain vines on rainfall alone. It takes more time to grow vines this way but the infertile deep sands and ironstone gravel over clay eventually support hardy vines. The wine produced from these vines has a length and depth of palate that is characteristic of this terroir.