Sangiovese - Grape of Tuscany, Italy

By Lindsay Alston

Sangiovese is a red wine grape assortment originating in Italy whose name comes from sanguis Jovis. It is most renowned as the main element of the Chianti blend in Tuscany, but winemakers outside Italy are starting to experiment with it. Fresh Sangiovese has new fruity flavors of strawberry and a little spiciness, but it willingly takes on oaky, even tarry, flavors when aged in barrels. Sangiovese vines are usually rather vigorous and disease resistant, but the berries are prone to rot. The small blue-black grapes are slow to ripen and flourish in hot, dry climates, but it is easy to produce capacity at the expense of quality. "The grapes are 18.9mm long x 16.9mm wide, with an average weight of 3.00g".

There are 14 duplicates of Sangiovese, of which Brunello is one of the best favored. There was an effort to sort the duplicates into Sangiovese gross and Sangiovese piccolo families, but there appears to be little evidence to sustain this distinction. Sangiovese appears to have originated in Tuscany, where it was known by the 16th century. "Recent DNA research by José Vouillamoz of the Istituto Agrario di San Michele all'Adige suggests that Sangiovese's ancestors are Ciliegiolo and Calabrese Montenuovo". The former is well known as an ancient variety in Tuscany, the latter is an almost-extinct relic.

Italian immigrants brought Sangiovese to California in the late 1800s, perhaps at the Segheshio Family's "Chianti Station," near Geyserville. But it was never measured very important until the achievement of the Super Tuscans, since then there has been rehabilitated interest in the grape. It has begun to be used more commonly in the Monticello wine region in Virginia by a number of winemakers with a fair amount of success.

Sangiovese is becoming more and more popular as a red wine grape in Australia, having been introduced by the CSIRO in the late 1960s. This is part of a growing tendency in Australia to use a wider range of grape selections for winemaking. Some wineries also use Sangiovese to make rosé wines. 2006 was the first year that an Australian wine maker made a dessert style Sangiovese. Called the "Dolce Nero" this new style is made by Hamiltons Bluff wines in Canowindra NSW. The Chalk Hill winery has released a Sangiovese with an alcohol level of 16%, one of the highest levels of any wine.

Lindsay Alston is a contributing editor for ClassicWines.com, specializing in Sangiovese wines.

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