Suncé Winery & Vineyard, Nebbiolo 2012, St. Olaf Vineyard, North Coast, California

Tasting Note: This wine tastes as if you’d dropped ripe red and black fruit in a basket of a spring flower cuttings and bottled it.

The purple-colored nebbiolo has a sensual aromatic nose of raspberry, cranberry, black cherry, raisin and jammy red and black fruit; there is also just the slightest hint of apricot stone fruit.

On the palate the full-bodied red is silky, high in acidity with floral flavors of honeysuckle, rose blossom and violet emerging on a long finish.

Fruit and acid are in careful balance and aromas evolve in your glass with exposure to air. The tannin is understated but present as though wrapping its astringency in a velvet glove.

A fine expression of the Italian nebbiolo grape in California courtesy of Suncé’s talented and ever-experimental winemaker Frane Franicevic.

Bottle Note: Suncé is an artisan winery located in the Russian River Valley appellation of Sonoma County, specializing in vineyard-designated varietal wines and classic blends. “To find eternity in a grain of sand or a drop of wine.”