I wanted to share a story about an experience I had that involved two very different loves of mine, those being Nebbiolo and surfing. 

With my love of Nebbiolo wine, a variety that has its home in the north-west part of Italy’s Piedemont region, I set out on a journey, over 10 years ago, to visit and explore this area. Once there, I was determined to meet the winemakers I had written on a list I carried around with me. One of whose wineries was nestled in the heart of Nebbiolo country, in a beautiful medieval village called Barolo.

Being one of Barolos oldest established wineries, I knew I would be exposed to the wealth of knowledge from the wine maker, but what I did not expect was to become privy to another secret connected to the area, although totally unrelated to wine.

Knowing that I was from Australia and that I loved surfing, the winery owner explained that the area was not only renowned for its noble wines, but a rare surf break situated an hours drive south, in a town called Varazze on the Ligurian Sea. While catching a wave in Italy was something I hadn’t thought possible, I found myself heading out of the rolling hills of Barolo and onto the motorway in the hope of doing just that.

As anyone who may have visited a seaside town in Italy might know, there is very little in the way of surf-able waves. Yet in 1970, that changed, when a devastating flood saw the swollen Bisagno River inundate the streets of the port city of Genoa, located not far from Varazze.

While casualties abounded, hundreds of cars were swept through the streets along with tonnes of debris. In the aftermath it was decided to load the vehicles and debris onto huge shipping barges where they were shipped out and duly dumped a few hundred metres off shore of the town of Varazze. Unbeknown to the local townspeople, the regions officials had just created an artificial reef and ultimately, an iconic Italian surf break.

While travelling to Varazze might not be an option right now, I’ve managed to discover another man made wave created at Urbn Surf ( @urbnsurf )  in Melbourne which is one of Australia’s first surf wave pools that allows me to satiate my desire to surf beautiful waves without a bundle of Fiats below me. Even when the memory of surfing an artificial reef combined with being fully immersed in the heart of Nebbiolo country remains a vivid memory, it is one I would one day love to re visit.

Vintage 2024 - The starting line

The beauty of vintage:

the late evenings,

the early mornings,

the achy muscles,

the sublime aromas of fresh ferments,

the hard work of taking nets off,

the wonderful relief of not seeing those nets for another year,

the joy of plunging grapes,

the anxious wait for wine to drip out of the press and that it will be everything you hoped,

the washing of new barrels and that smell of new oak that is so unique

Vintage has started and we are receiving such wonderful fruit.

With an Italian background and a passion for Nebbiolo, our brand voice captures the essence of Italian heritage that is at the heart of our wines. We want to communicate with an authentic yet modern flair that showcases the unique characteristics and flavours that Nebbiolo can provide.

Our tone of voice should be simultaneously approachable and informative. We are an established winery and have cultivated a loyal following over the years, so we want to preserve and enhance that connection with our customers. At the same time, however, we want newcomers to feel welcome and be drawn in by our story.

We use technical language and descriptive terms to help accomplish this delicate balance of approachability and authority. We explain wine concepts in simple yet precise terms that are easy for both seasoned and novices to understand. We also use colourful language that captures the nuances of flavour, aroma, and texture of Nebbiolo in a way that entices people's palates.

Overall, we strive to communicate with an approachable yet authoritative tone that helps build trust between us and our customers. We want them to feel like part of our unique Italian family and be inspired to enjoy a glass of Nebbiolo with us. By combining modern and traditional styles, we can create a brand voice that captures the essence of our wines for generations to come.

We use social media as an essential platform to communicate our brand voice. Our posts contain informative content about upcoming events, new vintages, and recipes that pair wonderfully with our wines. We share stories of Italian heritage alongside captivating visuals to add depth to each post.

Lastly, we use humour and wit in our posts to connect with people on a more personal level. Humour helps keep things light and allows us to engage with customers in a fun and friendly manner.

Authentic Flair is at the heart of our brand voice, allowing us to communicate with customers in a way that puts them first and shows that we genuinely care about their experience. Through consistent yet creative content, we can craft an authentic yet modern tone that resonates with people personally and professionally.

Try our latest single vineyard Nebbiolo

Serves 4

Ingredients:

2 crayfish tails (1/2 crayfish tail per person), peeled and diced into 2cm pieces

2 cloves of garlic finely chopped or crushed

1 punnet of ripe cherry tomatoes cut in half

3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

350g spaghetti

125ml white wine

200ml double cream

3 tbsp roughly chopped Italian parsley

Method:

The key to this dish is to have the pasta ready at the same time as the crayfish and sauce.

Prepare all ingredients prior to starting to cook.

Boil a large pot of salted water. Add pasta and cook as per the instructions on the packet.

Heat oil in the pan on medium/high head. Add garlic and stir until aromatic and just cooked. Do not allow it to burn. Throw in tomatoes and stir for a minute, then add crayfish and stir to combine. Stir for 2 minutes until just cooked. Add white wine to the pan and reduce slightly. Add in double cream and stir through.

Drain the pasta and pour into the pan along with the parsley. Toss through gently, season with salt (if required) and freshly ground black pepper serve. Once plated, add a drizzle of quality extra virgin olive oil.

Whilst some may protest, we do add a little quality shaved parmesan.

From all the tasting events we have been involved in, Chardonnay is a variety that seems to create such different reactions from people. I believe this is because there is such a diversity in the methods that the wine is made, between different winemakers, along with the influence between regions it is grown, and lastly if the Chardonnay is bottled under a screw cap or cork.

There are some winemaking techniques that endeavour to have the wine taken from vineyard and placed straight into a press as whole bunches with the subsequent juice going into tank or barrels for fermentation. Where on the other spectrum of wine making the grapes are separated from their stalks and sit on skins for a period of time prior to going to press then subsequently to barrel or tank for fermenting. Our preference is the second method as we are of the belief that structure is built into the wine when it has time on skins prior to pressing.

Where Chardonnay is grown can provide such differences in the end result. The amount of direct sun light and the intensity of this sunlight does change the flavour profile of Chardonnay more so than many other varieties. Our preference is for the vines to have speckled direct sunlight on the grape bunches to help create thicker skins, which in turn assists in the extract of flavour profiles during our wine making where we are having direct skin contact for a period of time as part of the process.

Of late we have been using screw caps when bottling our Chardonnay, but we will be looking at doing a mixture of both wine under screw cap and cork in the future as there is a further complexity created in bottle under cork that we believe suits our style of Chardonnay.

October 2020

With wonderful Autumn and Winter rains embellishing the soil with plenty of moisture in preparation for the growing stages of our vines we have seen consistent shoot growth within our vineyard through all blocks.  The above photo shows a single shoot of Shiraz with 2 new grape bunches emerging. It has been many years since we have had a vineyard that has the majority of shoots carrying 2 bunches per shoot. We can place some of this consistency to the vines having access to ground water in this rapid growth period.

Having had some great rain falls towards the very end of winter we have commenced Spring with excitement as the vineyard awakes and we are into the 2019-2020 season.

Bud burst across the vineyard has been consistent with new shoots in every variety even Cabernet Sauvignon which is usually the last to burst in Spring.

This year we have pruned to very low bud numbers with the thought that we may be in for a warm growing season. We are not wanting our vines to be stressed during the peaks of summer and possible ow rainfalls. The reduction in grape bunches will facilitate that we achieve phenolic ripeness as harvest time. This in turn allows for the resultant wines to have a finesse along with a rounded tannin structure.

There has been some long hours on the shovel digging out black berries between vines as we continue to strive to be as sustainable as we can.

We are having our annual Spring Open Weekend on the weekend of the 19 th and 20th of October, all are invited to enjoy the weekend with us.

Currently in the winery we are doing bench trials of all wines that have spent the winter in barrel, with the intention to commence bottling shortly.

We hope to see or hear from you soon.

December 2021

Within the winery we have been looking through all our barrels of Chardonnay and Fiano so we can decide what will be our final blend. This year there are a number of barrels that are so well structured and are providing such an exciting view to what the final wines will be in bottle.

In the vineyard the flowering of all vines is complete and the new bunches have formed. At this point of time all the bunches have very small grapes that are now ready to grow and gain all the beautiful color, tannin and flavour profiles that give each an individual character.

The wines we have in bottle are also aging gracefully and as each month passes their structure becomes more and more complex.

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