Soumah Mezzaluna Yarra Valley Reserve Nebbiolo 2022

So many scents and flavours to get excited by in Soumah’s inaugural reserve Nebbiolo, and the good news is that Mezzaluna remains singularly youthful as a four-year-old. It will enjoy a long life ahead. Strong in heart and fine in delivery of lifted florals, it mixes pressed flowers and rose petal with earthy, ferrous, undergrowth notes and a rich core of deep red fruits, dark cherries and prune. Give it some air, let it breathe, and it just gets better and better in the glass, changing each time you take a sip. Ripe, generous Nebbiolo tannins come into play with noteworthy structure – as is the grape’s want – and a freshness of acidity. Dry, astringent Italian-esque finish seals this wine which definitely falls into the riper, richer style but carries it off with real aplomb and class.

Jeni Port

Wine critic at Winepilot

Jeni Port is one of Australia’s top wine communicators. Based in Melbourne, Jeni created the first wine column in the (then) Sun News-Pictorial before moving over to The Age and becoming that paper’s longest-serving wine writer. Over the years she has written for most Australian wine magazines and these days calls WinePilot home. She is also a Tasting Panel member on the Halliday Wine Companion. She was named Wine Communicator of the Year and Legend of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival in 2014 and in 2018 Legend of the Vine. She is a founding board member of Australian Women In Wine and is the co-deputy chair of Australia’s Wine List of the Year Awards and China’s Wine List of the Year Awards.

Wine writer and critic