2025 Protero Nebbiolo Rose

Stephen Pannell’s obsession with Nebbiolo is legendary, and the Protero vineyard in Gumeracha is where that passion finds its true home in the Adelaide Hills. After surviving the 2019 bushfires, the Pannells doubled down on this site, removing varieties that didn't fit to focus on the ones that do.

The 2025 Rosé is sourced from Block 6, specifically the Nebbiolo 111 clone. The season was the driest in living memory, resulting in a disease-free, early harvest that delivered pristine fruit. Pannell handled it with kid gloves: hand-picked, destemmed and very gently pressed before a long, cool fermentation to lock in the fragrance.

It's not as if he needed another rose in his line-up (three at last count with Koomilya and Arido) but this is pretty, pink and delicate with the structural backbone you expect from this variety. It opens with aromas of blood orange, pomegranate, pickled strawberry and pink rose petals, backed by a hint of alpine meadows and sage. Delicious stuff.

94 points
"A powerful, complex, textural and thoroughly satisfying glass of deadly serious rosé. A rosé for food rather than idle quaffing."
- Huon Hooke (The Real Review)