Kitzke Cellars Nebbiolo

A Washington State Nebbiolo.

Nebbiolo is a red Italian wine grape varietal, predominately associated with the Piedmont region where it makes the wines of Barolo, Barbaresco, Gattinara and Ghemme. This bottle of Nebbiolo is produced here in Washington State by Kitzke Cellars. Kitzke Cellars is a newer winery located on Candy Mountain, off of Dallas road and a stone’s throw from West Richland, Washington. They are about a five minute drive from my home.

Tasting Notes

Color: clear, garnet.

Nose: spicy, cinnamon, pomegranate, raisin, pepper-mill. After an hour, concentrated plum fruit-leather emerged.

Mouth: medium-light body, smoky, black pepper, touch of bell pepper, bright.

Finish: pepper, raisin, dry, soft tannins, pleasant finish.

This wine seems best suited for food. Obviously, I’m thinking it would pair well with Italian food; at the moment I'm craving ravioli in a red sauce. Italian sausage, shaved ham and crusty bread also seem fitting. Put braised lamb on my menu too. This Nebbiolo has me thinking comfort food.

After a couple of hours this wine became velvety and more integrated, a bit of chocolate cookie emerged – and the tannins became more prominent adding to the texture. After two hours, this wine became more of a lip smacker. On the second day, the wine remained just as tasty as on day one. There’s life in this wine.

Like the finicky Pinot Noir, Nebbiolo is extremely site-sensitive, difficult to grow and temperamental in the cellar. Some winemakers say it is the most difficult wine grape to work with. It prefers cooler areas with warm-to-hot daytime temperatures and a high degree of luminosity. Sound familiar?

Once again, Washington State is proving itself as the definitive wine growing region. This is one wine you must seek out – contact the winery for availability of Kitzke Cellars Nebbiolo. Vickie Kitzke kindly gifted me this bottle of Nebbiolo, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Kitzke Cellars will be at Taste Washington Portland on May 1st.

Kitzke Cellars

72308 E 260 PRNE Richland, WA 99352

www.kitzkecellars.com

Phone: (509)521-5369

Email: info@kitzkecellars.com

Cheers!

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