Ian D’Agata is generally considered to be Italy’s most prominent and credible wine expert and the author of the www.iandagata.co

Sangiovese is Italy’s second most planted grape variety, second in total hectares only to trebbiano toscano. It is found everywhere in the country, except in the northern regions such as Piedmont, Veneto or Lombardy, where, being a late ripener, it fails to reach adequate sugar levels for quality wine production. Yet, even though it is commonly found from Emilia Romagna and as far down to Sicily, there is no doubt that it is in Tuscany that sangiovese gives the greatest results. It is here in fact that world-famous wines such as Chianti, Brunello di Montalcino and Vino Nobile di Montepulciano are made.

Actually, sangiovese is best considered not as a single grape variety but a very large family of sub-varieties that share similar characteristics. This is because sangiovese is a true native grape variety derived from the domestication of wild grapes, probably first achieved by the Etruscans, and has therefore many mutations occurred over the centuries depending on the sites it was grown in (native grapes are those varieties that are typical of a specific place and are not usually found elsewhere, unlike international grape varieties such as merlot or chardonnay that are found the world over). Hence the sangiovese found in Emilia Romagna, which gives the wine known as Sangiovese di Romagna, is similar yet slightly different than the sangiovese found in Marche and used to make the wine known as Rosso Piceno. There are many sub-varieties of sangiovese found in Tuscany as well: this is why in the old days people referred to the sangiovese that was used to make Brunello as sangiovese grosso and the one that grew in the Montepulciano area as prugnolo gentile. In reality, today we know that even in the Montalcino and Montepulciano areas there were more than just one sub-variety present, though there were some that were more prevalent than others. Therefore, it was not incorrect to say, as you’ll read in all the older books and in many wine articles still today, that the sangiovese of Montalcino gives the biggest, longest living wines, that of Montepulciano yields a much more tannic wine, and that of Chianti a lighter, more perfumed wine.

Independent of the sub-variety, all sangiovese wines have a few characteristics in common: the wines will always be fairly lightly coloured, will have aromas of violets, red currants, sour red cherries, tea leaves, tobacco and licorice. All sangiovese wines usually have high total acidity levels and almost sharp tannins when young, except for those wines made in really hot parts of Italy. When a sangiovese wine ages, it will take on strong aromas and flavours of underbrush, mushrooms and leather. It follows, and it is important for readers to know this, that a 100% sangiovese wine can neither be black as ink nor can it smell intensely of black fruit, black pepper or graphite. These are, quite simply, not things typical of true sangiovese. While in wines such as Chianti, which is legally a blend in which up to 20% of other grape varieties are allowed, a dark hue may be logical enough (for example in those Chiantis that contain syrah or merlot), in a wine such as Brunello di Montalcino (100% sangiovese only, by law) this simply cannot be, since the sangiovese skins do not have the anthocyans (pigment molecules) that allow for the making of black-as-ink wines. True, new clones have been created to ensure deeper hues, but these can be deep ruby at most, while blackish wines are not possible. When sangiovese is grown in much warmer areas such as southern Italy or even the Maremma in Tuscany (an extremely hot, rainfall-challenged area in south-western Tuscany the most famous wine of which is the up-and-coming Morellino di Scansano), it ripens extremely well and yields wines of much greater colour, creamy richness and low acidity levels.

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