Agreeing that it’s the most poetic name for a varietal, one still has to negotiate exactly what this classic, fussy Italian delivers. Steenberg set up a small survey.

Walk up a steep vineyard hill in Barolo, Italy, on an early autumn morning, and the name of the grape is instantly clear in the nebulous, misty landscape. Taste the local nebbiolo wines - unyieldingly from barrel (offered by kindly family winemakers) or gloriously aged (acquired at a steep price from merchants even in Alba) - one has no doubt that this is one of the world greatest, most challenging grapes. Also its most rewarding.

All this also implies that, similar to Burgundy, it is also the most expressive of terroir or, as Jancis Robinson puts it, ‘geographically sensitive’. In Barolo and Barbaresco in Piedmont it achieves what she also admires as ‘some of the most seductively scented wines in the world’. It’s a perfume as individual as you can get. Seduction, indeed.

So what’s it doing elsewhere? And, more specifically, in the Cape?

For reasons probably linked that the challenge mentioned above, a small vineyard of one hectare was planted at Steenberg in Constantia in 1993, after Herman Hanekom returned from a visit to Italy. It has delivered a small volume of local nebbiolo from the first vintage in 1997. Since those days, only three more producers have joined the very exclusive bottling club: Idiom, Morgenster and, surprisingly, Du Toitskloof winery (where the grapes are delivered from the Dagbreek farm).

Steenberg’s small, limited release has quietly made it onto the market every year, scoring reasonably well (four stars in Platter, last year, for the 2008), but mainly finding appeal among the small band of regulars. Those in the know have traced the consistency, or not, of the typical Steenberg ‘mintiness’ in the vintages.

So, to get a handle, the chaps in charge of the wine there, John Loubser and JD Pretorius, called a small tasting. It combined a vertical or sorts with a mini bench-mark line-up. We tasted all four ‘locals’ and a number Barolos, a Barbaresco and a Nebbiolo d’Alba (some young, others quite mature).

It was a fascinating snapshot of nebbiolo. What it is in Italy. What it could possibly be in the Cape.

With exceptionally low yields, nebbiolo can be a heartbreaker. Because of that, the Idiom vineyard near Sir Lowry’s Pass is under threat. (It shouldn’t be, from what we tasted.) The Steenberg delivers one ton of grapes. (More when the new small additional planting comes on line.)

If it is a heartbreaker, the astounding delights of the tasted Voerzio Barolo La Serra 1997 (!) and the Barolos Le Cinque Vigne and Liste, both 2004 (babies!), from Damilano make the effort a clinch. These are simply brilliant wines.

To compare locals is hardly fair, but the group agreed that Steenberg’s wines (2003, 2005, 2007 and 2009 were poured) didn’t look silly in the company.

Neither did the Idiom 2005 (although it was discolouring too quickly). The Morgenster Nabucco 2006 came across as too ripe, extracted and dark. The 2009 Dimension from Du Toitskloof was not unattractive, showing clean, if simple cherry notes. Of the Steenbergs, the 2009 may turn out to be the finest, although it is early days. Without the ‘mint’ or stalkiness, it shows purity of fruit, true expression of nebbiolo identity.

Perhaps, if this mini survey indicated anything, the latter is the key to finding vineyard and cellar space for local nebbiolo. Identify the very individual, expressive fruit by exact harvesting, work very carefully with wood, and try to hold on to that glorious seduction.