2016 Nebbiolo Riserva - Pelletiere Estate Winery

Ripe Morello cherry, fragrant rose, orange slice. Tart raspberry, star anise, fresh blueberry. Santa Rosa plum, bright cranberry, and red delicious apple weightlessly converge with licorice, tar, and hydrangeas in a gorgeously expansive and high-toned display. Brilliant floral perfume potently radiates from the glass contributing incredible lift while enhancing intriguing organic tones of forest floor and fallen leaves. Oregano, cinnamon, dried basil, and thyme continue the parade of extraordinary aromatic delight with a sizable dousing of complex spices that beautifully intersect with notes of roasted coffee and new leather. Beneath its captivating and expressive exterior a distinct current of limestone mineraility pulses energetically revealing transparent and enthralling reflections of terroir. Vibrant, layered, and flawlessly balanced; showcasing firm yet delicate power within an intricate mix of fruit, floral, and savory nuances. Absolutely packed with pronounced yet plush tannin and terrifically high acidity within its medium-plus bodied frame. This 2016 Nebbiolo Riserva by Pelletiere Estate Winery is an intellectual, characterful, and infatuating red from the Willow Creek District of Paso Robles.

Nebbiolo is a peculiar grape in that it is wildly popular in its homeland of Piedmont in northwestern Italy and yet remains very sparsely planted in the rest of the world. This bottling, crafted by Pelletiere Estate Winery using Nebbiolo sourced from their estate vineyard on the west side of Paso Robles, proves that this famed noble variety can thrive in California as long as it is planted in the right place. Thanks to the Pelletiere Estate's soils that are densely packed with fractured calcareous rock, Nebbiolo feels right at home here just as it does in the limestone-ridden hills of Barolo and Barbaresco. It is actually quite astounding how perfect this wine captures Nebbiolo's unique typicity, and it does so with delicate concentration, tremendous complexity, and impressive aromatic lift. This may very well be one of the greatest Nebbiolos made in the USA.