Description
Steenberg Nebbiolo 2022 is a cool-climate Constantia red that takes a famously structured Piedmont variety and gives it a distinctly Cape expression without losing its core identity. This is a wine built around perfume, savory detail, and tension rather than fruit weight alone, making it especially interesting for drinkers who appreciate reds with aromatic lift, firm shape, and long-term potential. It feels both unusual and well judged, with Constantia’s cooler conditions helping preserve the freshness that Nebbiolo needs.
The nose opens with tomato relish, rose petal, rooibos tea, and dried mushroom, giving the wine an immediately savory and expressive profile. On the palate, sour cherry, raspberry, and tobacco leaf carry through with bright tart acidity and fine-grained tannins, while a silken texture softens the variety’s naturally firmer edges. The finish is long, dry, and poised, making it especially well suited to springbok fillet, duck, braised meats, or aged cheeses where its acidity and savory character can settle naturally into the food.
Already compelling in its youth, this is a Nebbiolo with the structure and balance to age confidently over the next decade.
The nose opens with tomato relish, rose petal, rooibos tea, and dried mushroom, giving the wine an immediately savory and expressive profile. On the palate, sour cherry, raspberry, and tobacco leaf carry through with bright tart acidity and fine-grained tannins, while a silken texture softens the variety’s naturally firmer edges. The finish is long, dry, and poised, making it especially well suited to springbok fillet, duck, braised meats, or aged cheeses where its acidity and savory character can settle naturally into the food.
Already compelling in its youth, this is a Nebbiolo with the structure and balance to age confidently over the next decade.
The wine was fermented in stainless steel at 27°C for 15 days, with gentle pump-overs twice daily to build color and extract fine tannins without losing varietal precision. A selected yeast strain was used to support Nebbiolo’s aromatic profile. After malolactic fermentation in tank, the wine matured for 24 months in French oak barrels of 225L, 400L, and 500L, a combination that adds structure and depth while allowing the fruit and savory detail to remain in focus.
Winemaker: JD Pretorius
Winemaker: JD Pretorius
The Cape’s first registered farm established in 1682, Steenberg is a haven of tranquility steeped in heritage just 30 minutes from the bustling heart of Cape Town. Located in the idyllic cool-climate Constantia Valley, Steenberg produces some of the finest Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot and Méthode Cap Classique in South Africa, along with other celebrated wines. It is Steenberg’s distinctive terroir which inspires wines with a strong sense of place and which encapsulates the heritage of Steenberg.
