Skip to main content

Sangiovese


Italian wines are on a surge? Ask the French, the historical #1 nation for wine production whom the Italians finally surpassed in global wine production in 2012. It used to be that the Italians kept most of the homegrown wines to themselves, but the trend has reversed over the last two decades, such that any American can find a good selection of Italian wines at their local shop.

Sangiovese is a good place to start.

Sangiovese is both the most popular type of grape in Italy and the name of a number of red wines that accompany pasta dishes extremely well. This versatility makes it difficult, in fact, to recommend a particular Sangiovese over another, but there are any number of decent recommendations at Serious Eats and Wine Folly.

For our Italian supper, we enjoyed a bottle of Santa Cristina Toscana from Antinori, a fairly accessible bottle found in many parts of the US. It's a good, economical place to start before exploring more of this tasty grape and wine variety.

In fact, you might have already tried Sangiovese if you have enjoyed a glass or bottle of Chianti at an Italian restaurant. It turns out that the most famous Italian wine is required to contain at least 80% Sangiovese grapes grown in the Chianti region in Tuscany in order to qualify as a Chianti. This makes Chianti the very embodiment and flag bearer for the Sangiovese grape, even if most consumers don't know that it's this grape that carries the wine. Might as well add Chianti Classico or Chianti Superiore (Wine Spectator explains the difference) to your list as well.

For that matter, keep an eye out for Italian wines in general and their wide variety of grapes and wines beyond Sangiovese; there is quite a bit worth sampling. From the Nebbiolo grape in the North (look for the majestic Barolo that pairs great with a flavorful steak) to the Primitivo grape in the South (produces the wine by the same name, Primitivo, that complements grilled fare very well), Italian wines are begging for further discovery.

I'll cover more as we explore more wines and regions of Italy. Until then, cheers and cin cin!

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sunny Day Bay

There is a certain energy that winds through the office near happy hour on Friday late afternoon, like the feeling of the last few minutes of school before summer break. The work is done for the week, the bags start to pack with computers and pens and notebooks, and people start to smile again. Sometimes, there is actual laughter in the office. Outside, the sun is shining in San Francisco today. The bay sparkles something special, if one can avoid the snarled traffic painting the bridges. For me, this is no worry - I walk home, through the Financial District and down Columbus Street through the middle of North Beach. I know I am close to home when I hear the Powell-Taylor cable car clanking down the hill, last stop headed for Fisherman's Wharf at the base of Bay Street. Now, it is Friday late afternoon; my bag is packing with its own pens and notebooks (soon, computer too). I am smiling as well. I can feel happiness soon to think of the sun at my back walking past Vesuvio ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Spring Cleaning (better late than never)

Memorial Day weekend came and went like the thunderstorms that rumbled on Sunday evening here in the DC area. I thought that a three-day weekend would be just the cure for a crazy-busy schedule the past month (work projects blowing up all over the mainstream news, wedding planning, homeownership nicks & nacks, getting my personal affairs in order, travels, and stealing a moment for reflection), but it turned out that the only salvation was that the next weekend was now only 4 days away. Oh yeah, and a great friend was going to be in town in the upcoming week but that is the topic of another post. Still, I tried to make the best of the extra out-of-work time - which got funneled right back into homeowner activities (and what else does a homeowner do except spend free time keeping up with whatever is going on around and inside the home?). To be more specific, I took to cleaning up the "jungle", Wendy's vividly wonderful description of our backyard's overgrowth. I...
1 comment
Read more

Musical Nostalgia

I had a bout of musical nostalgia this afternoon as I was listening to Rufus Wainwright and compiling a powerpoint presentation for work. Two years ago, I remember the CD's of this self-styled (and modish) modern-day troubador. He was (and, I presume, continues to be) an "inside" kind of star with celebrities and hipsters (they like what is "hot" before us mortals do) for classical and dramatically-infused pop melodies. Those style-makers viewed him as "getting" pop like not many other contemporaries did; I just happened to like the songs, even if some were adopted as funkified dance anthems in gay clubs (convenient that Rufus is also gay, so he did not mind the mixing). Anyhow, I remember Rufus for his musical companionship in some turbulent NYC days, dealing as he did in his album "Want One" with regrettably lost loves and solemnness for the life he led on the road; I felt the same in those days as a consultant traversing the US between NYC...
Post a Comment
Read more