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Nebbiolo 2023

Nebbiolo 2023
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$65.00
/ 750mL
SKU: ESTNEB23

Two / Four / Six Packs Available (Club Only) 

Tom’s Love Affair with Italian Wine
Tom Stolpman’s love affair with Italian wine became cemented in 1993 when he and his wife Marilyn spent weeks in Rome for a legal case involving artifacts in the Vatican Library.  The following winter, he asked Ruben to plant 10 acres each of Nebbiolo and Sangiovese.  Stolpman collectors fell in love with both and today we have 21 acres of Sangiovese planted.  The Nebbiolo clonal material available in California back then turned out not to be the greatest and the vines began to weaken, ripening later each year.  Despite the loyal following, Stolpman made the last vintage from that original Nebbiolo block in 2003.  We continued to sell fruit to other winemakers through the 2010 vintage.  Then, when frost damaged the Nebbiolo buds in April of 2011, we decided to graft the remaining vines to Grenache and Roussanne.  Ever since then, Tom has pestered his son, Pete, who took over the operation in 2009, to replant his beloved Nebbiolo.  Longtime collectors cheered Tom on, as they slowly depleted their stocks of those classic, beautifully-aged 1998-2003 vintages.
In 2017, Pete and Ruben planted 500 vines of the newly available VCR-11 clone that the Vivai Cooperativi Rauscedo nursery had meticulously selected from Piedmont.  Ruben and Pete presented the 500th vine to Tom at his 68th birthday party and Tom proudly gave the vine a drink from a 9-liter bottle of aged Schramsberg Blanc de Blanc as its first “irrigation” once in the ground.  Tom’s friends and family all shed a tear with him, truly a momentous day!

In 2018, we harvested just enough grapes for a few six packs of Magnums for Tom to drink.  Now in its 5th official vintage, the 2023 emerges as a deep, concentrated, age-worthy Nebbiolo!   
Based on Tom’s love of this new generation of Nebbiolo, and its enthusiastic reception by our members, we planted 2.3 more acres of Nebbiolo in 2023.   We look forward to having more of this amazing wine to share with our members!
After healthy rains, 2023 turned into a dream vintage of even, moderate weather.  A warm October pushed the Nebbiolo to ideal ripeness, and after monitoring the tiny block for weeks, we finally pulled the trigger to harvest on October 14.  
Seductive dark red with transparent rim. Soft rose petal countered by a crunch of red berry, straight into deeper red depth sinking seamlessly into shadowy pine forest. The ripe but fresh red brushes straight through into chalky tannin with both fruit and tannin lingering long after the finish. Carried by its wash of red fruit intensity, the 2023 Stolpman Nebbiolo lands just one weight-class bigger than a traditional Barolo with more freshness and fruit purity, sans some of the tartness of our beloved Old Piedmontese.  

 

Wine Specs
Vintage
2023
Varietal
Nebbiolo
Appellation
Ballard Canyon
Alcohol %
14
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