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Spotlight on Sangiovese: Mauro Vannucci Piaggia Carmignano Riserva 2003

November 27, 2011 By Shea 1 Comment

Sangiovese is la dolce vita of Italy. It is its soul and its face, its bravura and charm and easy loveability. Even the most traditional and profound wines are loveable like a puppy. You don’t need to think to be drawn into these wines, though they reward contemplation. If Nebbiolo is the ivory tower wine representing Italy’s great intellectual tradition, Sangiovese is its art: chiseled but beautiful, opulent but intricate, communal and yet individualistic.

Unlike other great grapes, such as Pinot Noir or Syrah, it is not difficult to isolate Sangiovese’s distinctive voice. Great Sangiovese is always bitter-sweet, always hovering between fruit and savor. But it is structured and robust, with a powerful constitution for oak (much unlike Pinot or Syrah). It is too easy to call Sangiovese Italy’s Cabernet Sauvignon, because great Sangiovese does not travel well. Only Italian vineyards make Sangiovese taste good, and only in recent decades have producers started to truly tap into its potential.

Over this spotlight I have learned that the basic contrast between traditional and modern Sangiovese misses the point. Great Sangiovese simply cannot be overripe or over-manipulated. This is a grape that can stand up to a lot, but in order to be amazing, it must be allowed to sit perfectly poised between over the top and restrained. It must be vinified cleanly, but it cannot be forced into internationalism (When’s the last time you’ve seen an Italian be anything other than Italian?). You may not love Sangiovese, but it is impossible to hate.

Great Sangiovese can also be found at all price points. This cannot be said for some of the world’s, or even Italy’s, other great grapes. Clearly the best wines are being made in Tuscany, but Umbria and Sardegna also represent.

Carmignano the Small and Mighty

This superb wine is from the tiny 300 hectare Carmignano DOCG west of Florence. A Florentine region to the core, this was one of the four original production zones created by the Medici family in 1716. Because these vineyards are fairly northerly, most of the wines from Carmignano are blended in order to soften some of the hard edges of cooler-climate Sangiovese. The DOCG rules only require 50% Sangiovese, allowing many other grapes into the blend.

Piaggia started making a Carmignano Riserva in 1991 and has since vastly improved quality, using guyot trained vines planted in clay soils. The wine sees 18-28 days maceration, is fermented and aged in French Barriques for 18 months, and is unfined and unfiltered. Made from 70% Sangiovese, 20% Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc and 10% Merlot.

The Wine

The nose offers darker fruits of plum and black cherry along with some chocolate and spices from the oak, but also the classic bitter cherry of Sangiovese. This is a rich wine on the palate, but I think it maintains a good amount of traditional styling. The bitter cherry, herbs, and leather make this unmistakably Sangiovese driven. Without knowing if it was oaked, I figured that it probably was but that the oak had integrated very well (turns out I was right). This wine also has surprising clarity and balance for a 2003 and is, ultimately, quite an exceptional wine.

And that concludes the Spotlight on Sangiovese. Next up? Nebbiolo.

Excellent.
~$80 at Kits Wine Cellar

Filed Under: $60+, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Excellent, Italian Wine, Merlot, Sangiovese, Sangiovese

Spotlight on Sangiovese: Fattoria Selvapiana Vigneto Bucerchiale Chianti Classico Riserva 2004

November 19, 2011 By Shea Leave a Comment

Selvapiana is a highly respected producer in Chianti making a broad range of wines. This Bucherchiale is a single vineyard Chianti made from one of the best vineyards in the region.

Chianti From Brand to Terroir

Selvapiana has a long connection with Florentine history, first owned by a bishop, then passing to merchants and finally being purchased by the Selvapiana family and becoming an fully fledged vineyard in the early 19th century. Selvapiana is a huge 240 acre estate with 45 acres dedicated to wine and 31 dedicated to the other Tuscan staple, olives.

In many ways Chianti is the origin of modern Italian wine. As the first officially demarcated wine making zone, it both represents the beginning of Italians’ attempt to discover and express place and an important part of Italian political history. The famous Medici family of Florence were the original sponsors of Italian wine regulation, right in the heart of Chianti. After Italian unification, it was the baron Ricasoli (of the previously discussed Castello di Brolio) that created the Chianti DOC.

As time moved on, Chianti became more of a brand than a place. The wines were drunk based on associations with a certain Italian lifestyle. The majority of wines were very poorly made and served at not-so-great Italian trattoria.

The modern age has seen a rediscovery of Chianti as place, which has also meant that, as time and lobby pressure expanded first the Chianti Classico and then the Chianti zone, in the 1970’s and 1980’s a group of producers began rediscovering Chianti as a place rather than a brand. Now Chianti Classico is home to many very high quality producers, of which Salvapiana is a great example. In the late 1980’s and 90’s, regulations caught up with the avant garde quality-oriented producers, ensuring a standard of higher quality wines across the region. As improvements continue more Chiantis will be made with 100% Sangiovese, as this wine is. Eventually Chianti will likely earn its place amongst the great terroir regions of the world – but there is still work to be done.

Pure Chianti

This is a 100% Sangiovese Chianti – an increasing rarity. It sees long 20+ days maceration in steel and then 15 months aging in barriques and medium-sized sessile oak casks. This is a slightly more modernist approach than the huge botti traditionally used. However, I did not find it hid the fruit or unique character of the site but rather managed to provide the wine with a suitable structure for aging and long term expression of these fantastic grapes.

Pouring a medium-dark red, this wine is decidedly in the modernist camp: cherry liqueur, earth and sweet oak on the nose transform into tart cherry on the palate. There is nice intensity in this wine, with its mid-range body, long finish and slightly above average acid. I did find the wine a bit hot on the finish, but it may be that the serving temperature was a bit above ideal or that this wine has seen less than ideal storage. Ultimately, this is delicious wine made well, though in this market it is perhaps too expensive compared to great wines like the 2007 Fontodi Chianti Classico at $25 less. Regardless, it is a great example of modernist pure Sangiovese that could only be made in Italy’s original wine region.

Very Good+
$60 at Liberty Wines

Filed Under: $40-$60, Italian Wine, Sangiovese, Sangiovese, Very Good

Spotlight on Sangiovese: Il Palazzone Brunello di Montalcino Riserva 2001

November 13, 2011 By Shea 3 Comments

Another aged wine, and a good comparison to the Castello di Brolio Chianti Classico from the same year. Whereas the Brolio Chianti was quite modern, this is a more traditionally made wine, with long maceration time and four years aging in Slavonian Oak (a minimum of 2 is required by DOCG rules). I find that as a result is has a more complete mouthfeel and better aromatic profile than the Brolio, though it does not quite have the same power and tasty bitterness.

Three Vineyards in One

Palazzone blends three vineyards when making their Brunello. They have a high elevation north facing vineyard with clay soils, a south-facing vineyard with marine fossil soils and a third vineyard with a high mineral content of iron and magnesium in the soil that supposedly lends the grapes there a strong mineral quality.

10 Years of Delicious

Another classic nose: soft cherry, tobacco and licorice root. It is amazing how Sangiovese can change from its brooding slightly awkward self into a far prettier and more elegant creature with the proper age.

The medium body cherry fruit is luscious and yet not rich. The palate is long and highly delicious and the oak adds its two cents but is fully integrated. The texture is velvety but the fine but still grippy tannins represent on the finish. This impressive 2001 is just beginning to show well now and will also do fantastically well with another 5-6 years.

Excellent
~$100 at BCLDB and Kits Wine

Filed Under: $60+, Excellent, Italian Wine, Sangiovese, Sangiovese

Spotlight on Sangiovese: Perazzeta Rita Montecucco Sangiovese 2006

November 12, 2011 By Shea Leave a Comment

I’d never heard of Montecucco before drinking this wine. It is a DOC in southwest Tuscany on the river Ombrone growing classic Tuscan Grapes, with whites focused on Trebbiano and Vermentino and reds on Sangiovese. Wines labelled “Sangiovese”, like this one, must have at least 85% of that grape in the blend.

The Middle Road: Of Oak and Sangiovese

I think one of the most appealing aspects of Italian wine is its ability to be bitter and sweet simultaneously. This mouthwatering quality is present in the best Sangioveses as well. Even as a grape that takes well to oak (it doesn’t seem to take in the flavours as much as other varieties), it is important to ensure that the oak aging doesn’t overpower the wonderful bittersweet fruit flavours that naturally occur in the grape.

On the one hand are more traditional wines that focus on herbs, bitter cherry, leather and tobacco while on the other, more modernist hand, are wines that get into darker, sweeter fruits and greater opulence. I find that these modern wines, aged in new oak, can often change the wonderful bitter and textural firmness of Sangiovese into creamy, sweet wines that may appeal to certain palates but that also lose the authenticity of the grape.

It is all the more impressive, then, to taste a wine that deftly manages to integrate new oak with Sangiovese without losing its indigenous traits. It also helps that Perazzeta’s selection standards are high, keeping only about ⅓ of the fruit on the vine for vinification, and that the terroir is an interesting mix of river stones, quartz and ancient marine shells. The wine sees 12 months in new French barriques.

Deliciously Rich

An impressive nose of leather, minerals, dark cherry, tobacco and leaves. The palate brings out some darker red fruits because of the new oak aging. The wine is balanced well, though it needs to pair with heavier foods compared to a classic chianti or old-oak aged Sangiovese.

While I liked this wine, I found it interesting how the oak toned every flavour characteristic differently, transforming the juice from its unadulterated peppy self into a richer darker, creamier wine. 14.5% abv

Very Good to Very Good+
~$35 at Everything Wine

Filed Under: $30-$40, Italian Wine, Sangiovese, Sangiovese, Very Good

Spotlight on Sangiovese: Ricasoli Castello di Brolio Chianti Classico 2001

November 10, 2011 By Shea Leave a Comment

Aged Sangiovese is a rare treat and one that most drinkers have a hard time getting their hands on. Luckily this wine is currently avaiable in the market and is showing very very well right now.

Grape and Soil

Late-ripening Sangiovese is a challenge to grow in a region like Chianti. Less warm (and therefore less reliable) than Montalcino, most Sangiovese in Chianti must be planted on southerly slopes in order to sop up enough sun to ripen effectively. Wines mirror vintage considerably as a result. This has also led to the propensity to blend Sangiovese with other grapes in Chianti, most often Cabernet Sauvignon. But times are a changin’

Soils in Chianti vary, but Chianti Classico is a mix of shale and clay, which tends to produce wines of greater concentration than the soils outside of the Classico zone. Since the 1990’s, Italians have been rediscovering this terroir, amongst others, and are now understanding how to effectively plant Sangiovese without the need for blending. Nonetheless it is possible to find great blended wines along with 100% varietal wines, as this Chianti Classico attests.

One of the Oldest Estates in Europe

Ricasoli is a very large but also respected producer in Chianti with a serious history stretching back to the 12th century. A later iteration of Baron Ricasoli (Bettino) was one of the founders of Chianti Classico in the 19th century and was hugely influential in researching clones and blending, ultimately finding a formula that led to today’s DOCG rules. Amazingly, the estate is still in the hands of the family (if you want a contrast between new and old world wine estates, I can’t think of a better one).

The Wine

The Castello di Brolio is more than just Chianti Classico DOCG, it is rather a single vineyard site that is considered to be one of the best in the region. Made with mostly Sangiovese (usually about 80%) with about 10% each of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, this wine displays all the classic Sangiovese markers of leather, earth, cherry and tobacco leaf.

This is an incredibly delicious wine with superb high acid structure. The oak has now integrated, though the wine could go longer in bottle. The Castello is a great example of oak aging (18 months) that works and integrates well with the grape. I detected some darker chocolate notes along with rich ripe black cherries and an absolute ton of concentration. This will please those who like bigger wines and those who prefer wines with a considerable acid backbone. The intensity of the fruit and the acid meld extremely well. Simply put, the wine has attained uncommon balance. Balance is often the missing key to wines. Most drinkers don’t realize that they will in fact enjoy many styles of wine so long as they are properly balanced, an unfortunately rare phenomenon. And, it works with food. A “prestige” wine that works with food – finally!

The 10 years of age suits this wine well as it is still youthful but very integrated. It could go 5 more.

Excellent
$79 at Kits Wine Cellar (on sale for $59)

Filed Under: $60+, Cabernet Sauvignon, Excellent, Italian Wine, Merlot, Sangiovese, Sangiovese

Spotlight on Sangiovese: Pertimali Sassetti Livio & Figli Rosso di Montalcino 2008

November 6, 2011 By Shea Leave a Comment

Rosso di Montalcino is generally considered to be great value Sangiovese. Made from young vines growing in the Brunello di Montalcino areas, this is top quality vineyard land made affordable by the youth of the vines.

Youthfulness does not mean worse quality, but rather different quality. You won’t get long aging wines with deep brooding flavours like you do with Brunello. But you will get very high quality fruit forward, acid driven wines with a lot of character. When purchased from a traditional producer, these are some of the best Sangiovese based wines at their price point.

Top Vineyards

Founded in the 1970’s, the Sassetti Livio estate in Montalcino grew from a long traditional wine making family that moved from elsewhere in Tuscany in order to seek better vineyard land. The vineyards are located in the Montosoli hill north of Montalcino. These are some of the prime vineyard lands in Brunello, especially for traditionalist producers.

Classic Young Sangiovese

This is classic Sangiovese, with cherry, saddle leather and herbs on the nose. A structured high acid wine with bright cherry and a beautiful tart mouthwatering mouthfeel. There is also plenty of leather in this thoroughly traditional wine. It may not be as drinkable without food for those not used to the traditional style – but these sorts of wines are meant to compliment food and can only be fully experienced with a good pairing. All the classics will work: pasta, veal, tomato based sauces and pizzas.

Generally this is a far brighter, peppier wine than Brunello – a product of the youthful vines. The northern vineyards bring the acids fully to the fore of this highly structured and yet extremely youthful wine. An impressive and delicious effort.

Very Good+
~$45 at Kitsilano Wine Cellar

Filed Under: $40-$60, Italian Wine, Sangiovese, Sangiovese, Very Good

Spotlight on Sangiovese: Querciabella Camartina 2005

November 4, 2011 By Shea Leave a Comment

A highly respected producer from Chianti, Querciabella also makes this top-of-the-line Super Tuscan IGT from Sangiovese and Cabernet Sauvignon – a wine I was quite excited to try. Clearly this wine gets lots of points, is made to be enjoyed by an international palate and is well made. But it just isn’t for me.

Where is my traditional Sangiovese? These oak-inflected wines with international grapes lack structure and varietal clarity. They are undoubtedly softer, easier to appreciate on their own and suit the modern palate. But where is the acid? The bite, the fire, the peppy joy of great Sangiovese? It’s not in wines like this. These wines are made for opulent steak dinners rather than simple veal bolognese pastas or sweetly subtle lamb chops.

That said, this is a very good IGT and you can taste the Sangiovese influence – bright cherry and leather – even if it lacks some transparency with its micro-oxygenated textural creaminess and oak spices. The oak kills the mouthwatering qualities of high acid Sangiovese, but, again, this is well made wine. It’s similar in weight and style to a Napa Cabernet Sauvignon and will certainly gain amazing textural seamlessness with a couple years of bottle age. I just can’t abide. 14% abv.

Very Good+ (but my personal preference would rate this Good+)
$100 at Kits Wine Cellar

Filed Under: $60+, Cabernet Sauvignon, Italian Wine, Sangiovese, Sangiovese, Very Good

Spotlight on Sangiovese: Fattoria Bibbiani Poggio Vignoso Chianti 2009

November 1, 2011 By Shea 2 Comments

Brunello di Montalcino receives the high scores and big praise when it comes to Sangiovese. There are super tuscans and Chianti Classico riservas scrambling close behind Brunello for price and prestige. But what of the lowly Chianti? All but forgotten by many wine collectors, Chianti (sans classico and sans riserva) is yet consumed in vast quantities by a wide variety of consumers. My biggest problem with basic Chianti has always been its inconsistency in both style and quality.

Many Chiantis are simple, ‘rustic’ wines with few charms and high levels of brett. Others are overwrought wines with a considerable dollop of the international Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. I find most of the latter Chiantis to be boring wines with little ability to pair with food. Given the sheer scope of the region, however, it is possible to find small producers making traditional Sangiovese well. Enter Fattoria Bibbiani.

An Importing Venture Worth Noting

This wine is brought into North America by the superb but rarely written about “Small Vineyards” importer, working out of Seattle. Luckily for British Columbians, some of these wines are being brought into the province. Small Vineyards focuses on very small production wines made traditionally with biodiversity in the vineyards and minimal levels of interference in the cellar. I’ve attended a tasting put on by Small Vineyards in the past and can say that all of the wines I tasted then were charming, fairly priced and very food friendly.

The Estate

Fattoria Bibbiani is an old school wine estate, with a history of at least 1300 years. It has been with the Donato family for over 150 and is located 20 kilometres west of Florence on the bank of the Arno river. This is an interesting winery that has championed such projects as varietally bottling a unique clone of Sangiovese (Pulignano) that only exists on their estate. Bibbiani makes their Chianti with neutral methods, seeking simple purity of fruit. Techniques include: spurred cordon trained vines, stainless steel maceration and fermentation, and Slavonian oak aging in 10 year old barrels. The soils are limestone, clay and sandstone. Production is about 5,000 cases.

The Wine

Abundant, easily expressible cherry and strawberry fruit elide attempts at complexification. This is charming, free wheeling wine: clean, pure, simple and delicious. It also happens to be rockin’ tasty with pretty sweet fruit, leather and medium body. Perfectly suited for high acid pastas, pizza and anything with tomatos. In many wine lover’s search for greatness, they can miss the inimitable basic purity of a wine like this Chianti.

13% ABV. 85% Sangiovese, 10% Canaiolo, 5% Malvasia.

Very Good+ and Highly Recommended Value
$27 at Everything Wine

Filed Under: $20-$30, Canaiolo, Highly Recommended Values, Italian Wine, Malvasia, Sangiovese, Sangiovese, Very Good

Spotlight on Sangiovese: Salvioni Brunello di Montalcino 2003

October 23, 2011 By Shea 4 Comments

Despite its remarkable beauty and immediate loveability, Italy is a daunting country for any wine lover. With over 800 grape varieties, countless DOC and DOCGs and thousands of wineries, Italy is both deeply regional and a nuanced amalgam of grape and terroir.

While I have consumed hundreds of Italian wines, I feel as though I have only a limited understanding of the country. When faced with an immeasurable chasm of learning I like to start with the fundamentals. Sangiovese is perhaps the Italian grape, with nearly twice as many plantings as the next most populous varieties. Though planted throughout Italy, Sangiovese is best known in Tuscany and Umbria, with other significant plantings in Le Marche and Emilia-Romagna.

Sangiovese is also a grape that seems unable to succeed anywhere else in the world. Despite occasional pleasurable examples from California and Australia, for the most part nowhere makes good Sangiovese except for Italy. And yet within Italy, Sangiovese is possible of many different expressions.

In this spotlight I will focus on understanding the many faces of Sangiovese: whether terroir truly speaks or whether clonal selection and viticulture and cellar practices make the most significant impact on the final product. What makes Sangiovese so uniquely Italian and which producers are staying true to the grape’s indigenous character?

Instability and Brunello

Sangiovese is notoriously genetically unstable. It mutates with ease and clonal variation proliferates. The traditional line for Brunello di Montalcino’s greatness was that its Sangiovese clone were unique. There are, however, at least 6 different clones used in Montalcino, and it is more likely that the warm climate and the sandy and limestone soils contribute at least as much to the region’s distinctiveness than the particular clones used (soils also vary considerably between the northern and southern vineyards in Brunello di Montalcino).

Sangiovese is a late-ripening variety. In Brunello, with its hotter climate as compared to other Tuscan regions, Sangiovese vinifies into powerful, tannic and dark fruited juice. The required minimum of 4 years aging exists because the juice from these grapes is so taught and undrinkable in its youth. Most Brunello di Montalcino’s also need at least 5 years bottle age after being released before it becomes truly drinkable. With age, however, Brunello di Montalcino can blossom into a many-scented, deeply elegant and yet powerful wine of great distinction.

On Salvioni

Salvioni is a new-comer in Montalcino compared to storied producers like Biondi-Santi (1888) or Fattoria dei Barbi (the next oldest at around 1950). Founded in 1985, Salvioni has quickly catapulted into the upper echelons of Brunello di Montalcino, sharing pride of place with producers like Soldera. Owning 4ha of vines planted in the original Brunello di Montalcino zone (at the high-elevation vineyards near Biondi-Santi), Salvioni heavily restricts yields through considerable pruning but ultimately vinifies the wines very traditionally, using extended macerations and blends together 5 different clones. Only about 800 cases are produced and Salvioni makes no riserva bottling.

Choosing a good producer in Montalcino is essential. Since 1975, the number of producers has increased from 25 to 500. Plantings are at an all time high and many critics believe that the region is over-planted and many sub-standard sites are being made into wine that simply does not bear the hallmark quality for which Brunello di Montalcino has become known. The battle between modernists and traditionalists continues, with modernists winning short term scores and making rich up front fruity wines, but with traditionalists making more difficult to appreciate but much longer aging wines. Salvioni is generally seen as part of the traditionalist camp.

A Traditional Brunello

2003 was a hot year across Europe. It was difficult to make good wine in this year, particularly in warmer zones like Brunello di Montalcino. Salvioni’s high altitude vineyards, however, assisted greatly in producing a more elegant and balanced wines than most of his peers.

Still pouring very dark red despite its 8 years of age, this Brunello was all classic dried cherries, leather, sandalwood and flowers on the nose. The palate offered a powerful but tight acid structure and was ultimately still too tannic and not yet fully resolved.

It is always unfortunate to open such a prized bottle when too young, and that was certainly the case here though this Brunello had started to open and show its complexity after a few hours decanting. Licorice, roots and dried cherries – right now this is good but not great for the price and I expected a lot more. I believe this still needs 5+ years in the bottle, but it is also possible that 2003 will never shed its awkwardness even as it becomes less aggressive with age. I will open another in a few years to see.

Very Good+
$180 at Kits Wine

Filed Under: $60+, Italian Wine, Sangiovese, Sangiovese, Very Good

Fontodi Chianti Classico 2007

August 9, 2011 By Shea 7 Comments

Fontodi is a top producer in Chianti, a region much maligned both for its history of cheap dreck and for an overabundance of new Super Tuscan blends many of which have focused more on international rather than regional varieties.

On the other hand, Chianti, particularly Chianti Classico, has seen a bit of a resurgance lately, with top producers like Fontodi focusing on a terroir driven approach to Chianti and demonstrating that the Classico DOCG can offer stunning soil driven wines.

Fickle Grape, Rediscovered Terroir

Sangiovese, of course, is one of Italy’s greatest indigenous grapes, descendant from two other indigenous Tuscan vines called ciliegiolo and calabrese monotenuovo. Sangiovese is a vigorous grape that must be closely pruned but also that has difficulty ripening. The grape’s naturally light colour is what led to blending with both traditional varieties and the international grapes Cabernet and Merlot. Though I have to point out that while these noble French varieties have been much maligned, when done well, they can produce outstanding wine. That said, this Chianti is 100% Sangiovese (as is Fontodi’s Super Tuscan Flaccianello).

Perfectly Classic

A nose of classic medium bodied cherry becomes a fantastic full-bodied yet very well balanced wine with flavours of cherry, licorice and roots. This has amazing length and structure for basic Chianti Classico and is a superb example both of Fontodi and the outstanding 2007 vintage.

There is pretty much no Chianti out there in B.C. at this price point with this level of structure and complexity. That makes this wine an outstanding buy that you can lay down or drink now with a hearty plate of spaghetti and meatballs.

Very Good+ and Highly Recommended Value
$33 at BCLDB

P.S. The Portuguese Spotlight will continue soon – the contingencies of a busy life have created some delay.

Filed Under: $30-$40, Highly Recommended Values, Italian Wine, Sangiovese, Very Good
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