non Italian wine based upon the Nebbiolo grape

[PatrickW]

Hello Andrea,

Did you ever taste a non Italian wine based upon the Nebbiolo grape? and do you think they will compete in the near future with the Italian ones?

bye
Patrick

[Andrea Sottimano]

Dear Patrick,

everytime that I go in the Usa, I look for local wines that are made from Italian grapes.

Most of them are well made, but very technical and not very personal, some others are good, but without the typical notes of the grape ( I'm thinking about some Barbera from California or Washington).
But some of them are really very good, as some Nebbiolo or Sangiovese from the Northern California, Oregon, Washington.You can recognize the grape immediatly, you can find the typical elegance and richness of aromas, but, as it happens for Pinot Noir, in my peronal opinion they lack a little under the terroir side.I mean, after you recognize the grape is almost imossible to say where they come from, as It happens for piedmontese ot tuscans.

In French they have a wonderful expression to describe a wine: a wine can be " vin de cepage"( Wine in which you recognize only the grape) or "vin de terroir" ( wine in which you can find the grape and the zone from which it come from too).

If there could be a limit in this wines, well, I think this is the only one.

I think that, at now, they are so different ( Italians and Us wines)that a lot depends on the personal taste and on what everyone is looking for.


Ciao Andrea