Caparone 2008 Nebbiolo

DATE CONSUMED

Sunday, October 27, 2013

VINTAGE

2008

WINERY/PRODUCER

Caparone

WINE NAME

N/A

TYPE OF WINE

Red

COMPOSITION

100% Nebbiolo

SUBNAME/NICKNAME

N/A

VINEYARD DESIGNATION

Estate Grown

REGION/APPELLATION/A.V.A. (American Viticultural Area)

Paso Robles, California

ALCOHOL CONTENT

13.2%

PRICE PAID

Caparone prices (actually, used to price) all their wines at $14 a bottle (their wines are now all priced at $16 a bottle; they were priced at $14 a bottle for YEARS and deservedly increased their prices recently).  Because I buy cases and cases of their wine whenever we’re in Paso, they provide a 20% discount for volume buyers, resulting in a net price (including sales tax) of $12.04 a bottle, making their wines one of the best bargains on the planet!

WHERE/WHEN BOUGHT AND/OR HOW PROCURED

We bought a few cases of Caparone’s Zinfandel and Italian varietals on the way back from San Francisco this past May (2013).

BOUQUET

This wine has a very sharp, tart bouquet, exhibiting tons of savory herbs, earth, and red fruits like raspberries and cherries. 

 

TASTING NOTES

First off: this wine is VERY light colored, almost like a dark rose.  But despite the low alcohol level and light color, this wine packs a wallop of flavor.  When I first tasted this wine about six years ago, I had no idea how to interpret it; if I remember correctly, my tasting note on Cellartracker.com started off with something like, “And now for something completely different.”  This is indeed a “different” wine; most Americans who are used to only drinking Cabernets and other typical reds will probably be perplexed by this wine’s uniqueness and complexity. 

As the bouquet suggested, this wine does indeed have a significant tartness, along with prominent tannins.  There is an abundance of red fruits like tart/sour cherries and raspberries, along with acres of savory herbs.  Like all of Caparone’s other wines, this wine reveals incredible earthiness and terrior.  I’ve always believed that Pinot Noir exhibits its terrior (loosely translated as “a sense of place” (taking into account soil, weather (temperatures, rainfall, wind, degrees of slope of the vineyard, etc.)) better than practically any/every other varietal in the world.  But Caparone’s red wines exhibit their terrior just as well as any/every other Pinot on the planet.  In a discussion I had with Dave Caparone years ago (owner and winemaker), most of their vineyards are practically dry-farmed (or close to it; in drought years, they may irrigate their vineyards a few times a year).  I’ve always found dry-farmed wines to be, generally speaking, very earthy and a fantastic reflection of their soil, geography, and topography.  This wine is no exception!

Caparone’s wines are also unfined and unfiltered, which I LOVE.  I believe that fining and filtering wine removes potentially significant flavors and elements.  Due to mostly dry-farming, unfinning and unfiltering, and having planted their vineyards decades ago (the roots of the vines have probably probed dozens and dozens and dozens of feet below the soil’s surface, in search of moisture and extracting incredible amounts of minerals from that practically untouched and incredibly fertile subsoil), Caparone’s wines are always intriguing, always earthy, always complex, always delicious-beyond-belief, and always a great value.  If you’re a typical American and love Paso Zin Fruit Bombs, look elsewhere.  If you truly enjoy interesting, complex, not-your-ordinary Zin and red Italian varietals, Caparone should be at the top of your list of wineries to visit.  I’m rather obsessed with their Zin and Italian varietals.  They’re one of the wine world’s greatest bargains and if you enjoy rustic, earthy, spicy, low alcohol, light-bodied, complexly-flavored, and extraordinarily food-friendly red wines, they’re almost impossible to beat for the price.

PAIRING SUGGESTIONS

About three or four months ago, we went to my parent’s house and made lamb shanks and pasta (the sauce was pretty light with not much of a tomato presence).  I brought along a bottle of this Nebbiolo thinking it would pair well with the lamb shank sauce, but it really didn’t pair that well.  Because this wine is so tart, earthy, herbaceous, and tannic, it SCREAMS for pasta with a ragu-like tomato sauce.  Arthur made traditional tomato sauce with his garlicky meatballs and spicy sausage and this wine went PREFECTLY with the pasta; the wine’s acidity matched beautifully with the acidity in the tomato sauce.  Because this wine is light-bodied and somewhat Pinot-like, it would also pair well with salmon, duck, and like most red wines, almost any red meat dish.  But I like to pair this wine with pasta and tomato sauces; it’s a match made in culinary heaven!

AGING POTENTIAL

This wine is drinking very nicely right now, but because of its acidity and tannins, it should age gorgeously for another 20+ years.  I would LOVE to try this wine in 2025; unfortunately, I don’t have the patience to let my other bottles sit in the cellar for another dozen years.  Sadly, I just don’t have that kind of willpower.  If you have some of these bottles in your cellar and have the willpower and patience to let them age and mature for another dozen years, let me know in 2025 and I’ll make you a deal: bring your 2008 Caparone Nebbiolos over to our house and we’ll make you a home-cooked meal to DIE FOR to pair with your bottle(s) of 2008 Caparone Nebbiolo.

SCORE (on a 100-point scale)

89

Q.P.R. (QUALITY-TO-PRICE RATIO) (POOR, FAIR, GOOD, EXCELLENT)

GOOD – EXCELLENT

WINERY WEBSITE

www.caparone.com