Bottling Nebbiolo

We bottled 30 gallons (300 bottles) of Casa Moneta's 2006 Nebbiolo today.

My friends John and Sabine buy grapes in the Santa Ynez valley, and make fabulous wine. John has an oenology degree (that's winemaking) from UC Davis, which he received by doing a program on-line. He has a full time job as a banker.

Anyway, John makes good wine. He buys great grapes, but he is also skilled at making the grapes into wine.

In 2006 he bought Nebbiolo grapes, inspired by our visit to Torino, Italy for the Winter Olympics. After 2 years, the wine in the barrel didn't taste so great. So he gave it another year. And by 2009, it was much improved.

So I picked up 25 cases of empty bottles in Camarillo and drove to Santa Monica. Where a crew of us got the wine from barrel to bottle. I filled, Sabine Schmidt topped, Noel corked, Juan wiped and boxed. Then, to the marketing department - Sabine and Leisel labeled. John also topped a few bottles with wax - very fancy!

This is a wine that will improve with a few more years. Patience...