Nebbiolo and the Long View

From the very beginning, Nebbiolo has been at the heart of our vision for Centennial Mountain. Long before the first vines were planted on the remote ridgetop in northern Sonoma County that would become Centennial Mountain Vineyard, our founder Kevin Harvey’s passion for Nebbiolo had already taken him to Italy. In the vineyards of Barolo and Barbaresco, his love for Nebbiolo—its structure, nuance, and a profound sense of place—only deepened. Those early travels planted a question that would take years to answer: could Nebbiolo achieve this same clarity and depth outside of Italy? And if so, where—and how?

As we began our search for the ideal place to grow Nebbiolo (as well as Carricante, Nerello Mascalese, and other Italian varieties), it became clear that Nebbiolo was not a grape that could be adapted easily to California. It demanded very specific climatic conditions, most notably cool days to preserve freshness and complexity and warm nights to bring the acidity and sugar into perfect balance. While Nebbiolo is capable of excelling in many different soil types, we understood that climate—most notably a modest diurnal temperature swing—was the missing piece of the puzzle. Understanding this led us to the site that would become Centennial Mountain Vineyard.

Centennial Mountain Nebbiolo: Biotype, Fermentation, and the Long View

At Centennial Mountain, Nebbiolo has always been a long-view project, one shaped as much by observation and restraint as by intention. From the moment we planted this ridgetop vineyard, high above the fog line and rooted in fractured shale and schist, we understood that Nebbiolo would not declare itself quickly. It is a variety defined by structure, nuance, and internal tension, and one that responds best when both the vineyard and the cellar are allowed to speak with clarity.

A mountain site, explored through diversity

Nebbiolo is one of three Italian main varieties planted at Centennial Mountain, chosen for the site’s elevation, marine influence, and pronounced diurnal shift. Cool days preserve aromatic precision, while warm afternoons allow for full phenolic development—conditions well suited to Nebbiolo’s natural balance of tannin and acidity.

Rather than approaching Nebbiolo as a single expression, we treated it as a family of related types. At planting, we established a ten-clone trial drawn from multiple traditional Nebbiolo biotypes long recognized in Italy. Each selection brings subtle differences in growth habit, ripening curve, cluster architecture, and tannin profile. Together, they form a broader lens through which to understand how this mountain site shapes Nebbiolo.

This strategy closely mirrors our original approach at Alpine Vineyard more than twenty years ago: plant broadly, observe rigorously, and refine slowly. The objective is not uniformity, but insight—allowing the site to reveal which expressions resonate most clearly over time.

An evolving winemaking approach

As the vineyard has matured, so too has our winemaking—always in response to the fruit rather than in pursuit of a fixed stylistic endpoint. From the outset, the guiding principle has been transparency over extraction, allowing Nebbiolo’s inherent structure to articulate place without being forced. Fermentations are intentionally long, typically 28–30 days on skins, using time as the primary extraction tool rather than aggressive cap management. During these extended fermentations, we increasingly rely on submerged cap techniques, promoting slow, even extraction, preserving aromatic freshness, and integrating tannins without harshness.

In the cellar, we have shifted progressively toward whole berry fermentations, moving away from earlier partial crushing. Fermenting with intact berries limits early mechanical extraction and helps preserve Nebbiolo’s lifted aromatics and red-fruited precision, while allowing tannins to build gradually through diffusion rather than force.

As lignification has improved with vine age, we have also begun trialing small amounts of whole cluster fermentation on a block-by-block basis. These trials are exploratory, used to understand how stem inclusion can influence tannin architecture, aromatic layering, and mid-palate structure without obscuring site character.

Across all approaches, élevage is treated as a phase of refinement rather than correction—allowing the wines to settle into balance organically while preserving the clarity of the vineyard.

A dialogue between site, biotype, and time

Centennial Mountain Nebbiolo is not about a single clone or a singular technique. It is about the interaction between site and biotype, fermentation and time—a gradual convergence toward an expression that feels inevitable rather than engineered. We are still in the learning phase, and intentionally so. With each vintage, the vineyard continues to sharpen the conversation, revealing how genetic diversity, long fermentations, whole berry and submerged cap techniques, and measured evolution in the cellar can come together to express this mountain site with increasing precision and depth.

The 2022 Centennial Mountain Nebbiolo

Now in its second vintage, the 2022 Centennial Mountain Nebbiolo marks a meaningful inflection point in this long-view journey. In Vinous, Billy Norris described the wine as “exceptional… a profound and emotionally moving wine that exemplifies the very best attributes of its kind,” concluding that it is “the finest domestic Nebbiolo I’ve ever encountered.” Matthew Luczy of The Wine Advocate echoed that perspective, calling the 2022 Nebbiolo “a transcendent expression of the varietal from this side of the Atlantic,” noting its balance, refinement, and capacity to evolve gracefully for decades.

For our members, these responses affirm what Nebbiolo has taught us from the beginning: that patience matters, restraint reveals truth, and when site, variety, and intention align, the results can be breathtaking. The 2022 Centennial Mountain Nebbiolo is not an endpoint. Instead, it is like stopping to enjoy a majestic mountain view on a longer journey, where we can see both the road behind and the one ahead with clarity