Vinea Marson Nebbiolo 2015

What an alluring creature this is. Australian Nebbiolo is often a lot more fruit forward that its Italian counterparts; but this wine nails the ethereal interplay of florals, earth and spice. A blind tasting would have been more likely to send me to Barbaresco in Northern Italy than Heathcote – what a joy it would have been to find out my mistake.

Dried rose petals and cherries, rhubarb spiced with star anise. There’s homemade raspberry cordial flecked with zested orange. Sensuous plum pudding spices (without the sweetness) evolve into fresh leather and savoury aromas of the Australian countryside – ferrous earth, the mineral tang of sun-baked rocks, hibiscus and eucalypt. Precise acidity and lots of tannin remind you that Nebbiolo demands to be taken seriously but the tannin is so perfectly ripe, it is only there for support. Drink with perfectly roasted duck, pan juices and braised red cabbage.

Nicole Bilson

Wine Critic at Winepilot

Nicole loves wine. So much so that she gave up a successful career in Pharmacy, perfected her spitting technique, and moved from sunny Queensland to the wine-drenched laneways of Melbourne. Stints in hospitality, wineries, retail, sales and marketing filled the next few years while Nicole built her knowledge and searched for the right path. She completed the Wine and Spirits Education Trust (WSET) Diploma in 2016 and became a certified WSET Educator the following year. She now juggles a number of roles including teaching people about wine, curating wines lists for restaurants and bars, judging in Australian wine shows and, of course, writing. In 2016 she won the Negociants Working With Wine writing award and has since contributed to Gourmet Traveller WINE, Halliday Wine Companion Magazine and Nourish Magazine.

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