Giaconda Nebbiolo 2021

Rick Kinzbrunner was a mechanical engineer before he turned to wine. He studied at UC Davis, worked in Napa, Sonoma and Bordeaux, including at Château Pétrus, and founded Giaconda in Beechworth in 1982. The estate is one of the great small wineries of Australia, best known for its Chardonnay, but the Nebbiolo is among its most fascinating wines. It comes from a separate planting at elevation, with extended maceration on the skins, and maturation in French oak and old oak or amphora for up to two years. As in the rest of the cellar, the wine is only ever moved by gravity or gas, to preserve its pristine fruit. Production is tiny, and the estate itself describes recent releases as its best Nebbiolos to date as the vines mature.

The result is among the most convincing Nebbiolos made in Australia. The 2022 shows dark plum and cherry, violets, dewy rose petals and a whisper of melted tar, then red fruit, rosehip, anise, dusty cocoa, earth and gentle woodsmoke, with firm, fine-grained tannins and a long finish of amaro and bitter-sweet herbs.