Spotlight on Sangiovese

Enjoy a rather special evening discovering the most important black variety from Italy - Sangiovese. We have expertly selected a range of world-class wines crafted from this famous variety from its spiritual home of Tuscany, plus Umbria, Emilia-Romagna and even France (Corsica) and the new world. Included in the tasting is the supertuscan Tignanello which is majorly crafted from Sangiovese, and famed for being one of the original supertuscans. As always on these tastings, wine school founder Jimmy Smith will be including full WSET examiner’s tasting notes.

Rather attend an online tasting? We are also hosting this tasting online on: Tuesday 12th July at 7:30pm!

Sangiovese

Sangiovese is and has always been THE dominant grape of central Italian red wines, and Chianti in particular. Because in the mid-20th century Chianti was frequently lightened with the addition of tart, pale-skinned Trebbiano grapes and stretched by the addition of fuller reds imported in bulk from the south of Italy and the islands, it was far from easy to determine what Sangiovese's innate qualities were. It has been only in the last couple of decades, thanks to a systematic research programme by producers in the Chianti Classico heartland of the greater Chianti region, that the myriad clones of Sangiovese grown all over central Italy have been studied and assessed.

Sangiovese's dominant viticultural characteristics are that it can vary as much as Pinot Noir in its sensitivity to place and that it ripens relatively late. Today, fine Sangiovese is an altogether nobler wine. It will be the product of much lower yields so that there is real concentration of colour and savour. As for the elusive flavour of pure Sangiovese, it ranges in a spectrum somewhere between mulberries, prunes, spice, tobacco, sometimes leather and chestnuts (there seems to be some common thread of colour here!) It tends to be savoury rather than sweet, and if not fully ripe can smell distinctly farmyard-like.

Wines on Tasting:

Tuscany

• Villa Antinori Tignanello, IGT Toscana, 2016 (Supertuscan)

• Ricasoli, DOCG Chianti Classico Riserva, 2018

• Villa di Ventrice, DOCG Chianti Rufina, 2015

• Azienda Agricola La Magia DOCG Brunello di Montalcino, 2015

Umbria

• Lungarotti, Rubesco, DOC Rosso di Torgiano, 2015

Emilia-Romangna

• Armigero, DOC Sangiovese di Romagna, Riserva, 2016

Corsica

• Domaine Alzipratu, Cuvee Fiumeseccu, AOC Corse Calvi, 2020

New World

• TBC

Rather attend an online tasting? We are also hosting this tasting online on: Tuesday 12th July at 7:30pm!