Timo Mayer - Nebbiolo Yarra Valley 2021
Price: $79.99
| Producer | Timo Mayer |
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| Country | Australia |
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| Region | Victoria |
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| Subregion | Yarra Valley |
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| Varietal | NEBBIOLO |
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| Vintage | 2021 |
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| Sku | 32215 |
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Wine Enthusiast: 94 Points
By Italian standards, this Nebbiolo is a fruit bomb. But this isn’t Italy and this wine isn’t pretending it is. It both smells and looks like freshly squeezed strawberry juice, with delicate aromas of rose petal and spice just beneath the surface. There’s a gorgeous purity of fruit, which is, frankly shocking, considered it was fermented 100% whole bunch. The paradoxes continue on the palate, where Nebbiolo’s characteristic delicacy and power shine. The shimmering fruit is tightly laced by tannins and buoyed by pristine natural acidity.
Wine Advocate: 94 Points
The fruit for this 2021 Nebbiolo is sourced from a vineyard in Dixons Creek (owned by De Bortoli), with the customary (for Mayer) 100% whole bunches in the ferment. The thing about Nebbiolo, I think, is that the best in the world (ok, Piedmont) achieve a balance between three key things: acid, tannins and fruit. They're very tannic, they are high-acid, and the fruit is delicate—lacy, detailed, complex and savory. In Australia, we can usually achieve two of the three things with relative “ease,” but it’s tough to get all three. Here, the acid is pert and fresh, the fruit is red, detailed and littered with summer strawberries, cherries, pink peppercorns and pastrami, and the tannins are firm, silty, grippy and good. It's got all three going on, which makes it very impressive. I'd like to see a little more savory characters through the middle palate, but these will undoubtedly develop as the wine ages. Epic effort here.
