A question of numbers: Kirrihill Clare Nebbiolo 2012

Digging deeper the Kirrihill website notes that the fruit for this was picked in April (which is towards the end of the 2012 vintage, but normal for a late ripener like Nebbiolo), with the finished wine having a pH of 3.45 and a TA 7.4g/L.That acidity and pH is pretty typical of ripe Clare reds (that have had a slight acid adjustment), but the alcohol is a complete anomaly. If the fruit was ‘ripe’ that alcohol would be closer to 13.5%-14.5% (maybe 13% at the lowest in certain vineyards, but you’d expect a different set of TA and pH figures then). Conversely, if the fruit was picked early, you might expect a lower pH too.

The question then is – how did this wine end up with such disparate numbers? The simplest answer may lie in the site, which is apparently rather cool and elevated, perhaps suggesting fruit that was never properly sugar-ripe in the first place, picked because it had to be.

Such a situation is backed up by the herbal edge and raw tannins, suggestive of the oft-repeated challenge with ripening Nebbiolo. The elevated pH could be linked with yield issues (too high) or too much vigour/canopy problems (leading to shaded fruit).

Conversely, this could have been put through an RO machine to remove excess alcohol (which would explain the pH and TA), though again the herbal edge works against that.

Finally, it could just be an unusual wine numbers-wise. Nebbiolo is a relatively unknown beast in Australia, and the source for this would probably be a young vineyard (likely 15 years old at the very maximum) with younger vineyards known for occasionally throwing up unusual results.

Ultimately I’m just being presumptuous here, looking at numbers alone – which mean nothing when the wine ‘works’. But this doesn’t it – this tastes just as odd as the numbers suggest..

Drink: 2013-2015
Score: 14.5/20, 83/100
Would I buy it? No.