It depends on the scale of the Nebbiolo and I would lean toward a mountain Nebbiolo as Michael suggested. I was going to recommend Produttori di Carema.
Not crazy at all in the hands of the right producer. Marcus Goodfellow made a Syrah up until 2016 that had the reputation of being “a Syrah for Pinot lovers.” If the OP is interested, I believe he still has the 2015 in stock. That would be an interesting addition being a Syrah from Oregon.
Sciacarello from Corsica.
Both Schiava and Beaujolais with some age can resemble low end Pinot Noir.
Super-taster @Otto_Forsberg thought @Adam_Frisch’s '19 Mission might be a faux-Pinot.
I’m pretty sure he has some of this back vintage available upon request.
Cinsault or Counoise - you’re welcome . . .
Second this. I’ll also add Trousseau as another good red varietal from the Jura you could try. Looks like pinot in the glass and is a lighter bodied red fruit and acid driven wine.
Caveau de Bacchus based in the Jura makes some amazing classic Trousseau, but can be tough to find.
Domaine du Pelican based in the Jura is owned by Marquis d’Angerville and makes both Trousseau and Poulsard. The wines are exceptional.
Arnot Roberts makes an awesome domestic Trousseau that is like $35 too.
I had a '17 Nervi Conterno Gattinara day before yesterday that poured very light in color, and was lithe and tight and started for the first hour with almost no fruit aromas, but had very distinct undergrowth-animal aromas that I associate with Burgundy. I would have almost certainly gotten that wrong in a blind tasting for the first hour or so until it got some air.
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yes, and yes
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… and now I have nothing new to contribute.
Sandlands makes an awesome Trousseau too
My wife and I love Frappatto. We vacation in Sicily almost every year and drink a lot of Occhipinti and Cos
We had our first counoise a few months ago at Benevolent Neglect in Napa. Very enjoyable wine in a hot day.
Nah, I only thought it looked and smelled like Pinot Noir. Just one sip and that instant I was out of the Pinot town.
(and I’m not a super taster of any kind, just a frequent one )
But Mission can be PN-y sometimes. One of the most dead ringer wines I’ve ever had to my own Mission, was WB producer Franny Beck’s Oregon PN. I even made a post about it here. If I hadn’t been looking at the label, I would have for sure thought I was drinking my own wine. It had that exact same herbal, Campari-note that Mission always displays.
I’m not sure if we’re talking about the same aroma, but to me, Campari / chinotto is always a sign of brett. Not funky, smoky or band-aidy, but a lovely, fragrant note of chinotto rind, ie. Campari. I have no idea what is the compound responsible for the aroma, but I guess it might be some kind of phenolic compound produced by brett. And for some reason it comes only in light red wines. Not in whites, not in big, ripe reds - only in light, crunchy, dry reds (like Pinot Noir, Poulsard, Trousseau, Gamay, Pineau d’Aunis, Nerello Mascalese etc.).
Mencia, e.g. from Envinate or La Vizcaina, could be another possibility…
I drink by far more Nebbiolo than anything else, and drink a good deal of it rather young. While these wines may be less tannic than earlier generations, I agree with John that these are very tannic wines. On the general scale of tannic wines, they remain near the top, IMO. It’s something I like about them, along with their acids. I agree that there are some producers especially making their Langhe Nebbiolo in a fresher style, but there is still generally a good deal of tannin and I suspect for many the idea that these wines aren’t particularly tannic comes from comparison to what they expect from times past. Now, barrique can make these wines much more ready to drink (and ruin them in the process). Overall I find the amount of suggestions for Nebbiolo, except for very aged Nebbiolo, surprising.
The wine that came to my mind immediately was Scherrer Zinfandel Old and Mature Vines. The 2018 especially so for me. Very unexpected.
Howard,
I was trying to make a point, that there is great wine in Northern Greece. Everybody expected the best wine to be the Grand Cru Burgundy, and there are enough similarities between Nebbiolo, Xynomavro and Pinot Noir to make them difficult to distinguish. I don’t think anybody would try to fool blind tasters by putting a Sangiovese in a tasting with Pinots.
I have drank a ton of Nebbiolo too, but came at the suggestion from a different angle. I’ve found that whole cluster Pinot Noir tends to have huge amount of tannins in them (i.e. Goodfellow which sometimes needs hours/days to open up and 10-15 years to enter the drinking window) and have a surprising “Nebbiolo” quality to them.
It can make a very light finessed wine for sure. Huge grapes, very similar to Cinsault, so you end up with a lower alcohol, lighter colored wine - still full of flavor and complexity but just ‘toned down’. I’ve been making one for awhile and dig it.
Cheers