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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The 2007 The Nebb saw a change in winemaking direction with separate ferments being undertaken for 3 parcels of Nebbiolo. As per previous Nebb’s the Cabernet was fermented and treated

Winemaking – Nebbiolo

The 1st parcel was cold soaked for 14 days (4-10°C) in a small wooden fermenter (500 litres). The pre-fermentation cold maceration was to extract colour, aromatics, fruitiness, and mouthfeel.
The 2nd parcel was left to its own devices and allowed to undergo wild fermentation in an open fermenter. This parcel was pressed separately and then filled to a new 500 litre ultra fine grain French oak barrel with a Burgundian toast style to enhance the French oak woods savoury/smoked meat characters.
The 3rd parcel of Nebbiolo was inoculated with an isolate Barolo yeast strain and allowed to undertake a long cool ferment. The wine was pressed and then transferred to 1 & 2 year old French oak Hogsheads.

Winemaking – Cabernet

A small amount of juice was drained pre-ferment (approx.10%), with the aim being to increase the colour and skin aromatics extracted. This parcel was left to its own devices and allowed to undergo wild fermentation in an open fermenter. The wine was pressed and then transferred to a 2 year old French oak Hogshead.

Tasting Notes – The Nebb retained a hint of the estery fermentation characters with lifted Turkish Delight notes. There is once again a hint of cocoa on the nose and palate. Palate is well balanced with fine tannic backbone and lingering Nebb characters.

Release – The 2007 The Nebb after nearly two years in wood is now ready for release after approx. 6 months in bottle.

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.

Limited release to The Nebb mailing list first, you know you are!

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Copyright Stephen D. Tanzer, source: International Wine Cellar
* US retail price

2005 Sold out!

The Cabernet Sauvignon is grown from the Clone LC10 from fifth generation Mclaren Vale grape grower, Ross “Nat” McMurtrie. Nat likes to keep things simple and clean in the vineyard resulting in Cabernet that is ripe but retains varietal characteristics. It has been pressed at two Baume and placed into one new American Oak, ultra fine grain chateau barrel and left for two years.

Never made it to the ball, sold out prior to bottling!