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Sangiovese: the grape that rules Tuscany

Sangiovese is the red grape that rules Tuscany. Chianti, Brunello di Montalcino and Vino Nobile di Montepulciano are all made from it. It gives a ruby-colored wine that smells of cherry, with a sip that makes your mouth water, lively acidity and that grip of tannin. If you've ever had an Italian red with your pizza, there's a good chance it was this one.

Where it comes from

Sangiovese is Italian. In VIVC, the international grape catalog, its main name is simply Sangiovese, a red grape originating in Italy. Who its parents are is still an open question: the catalog records more than one hypothesis drawn from DNA tests and warns that more analysis is needed to settle it. What DNA has already shown is that it has offspring, in other words, it became part of the family of other Italian grapes.

Italy's official grape registry, kept by the Ministry of Agriculture, splits Sangiovese into two groups of types: the large-berried one (Sangiovese grosso) and the small-berried one (Sangiovese piccolo). The local names Brunello, from Montalcino, and Prugnolo Gentile, from Montepulciano, are linked to the large-berried group. It's the same grape, with small variations in bunch and berry that each place selected over the centuries.

What it's like in the glass

Ruby color that turns garnet with time, a red leaning toward brick. On the nose, red fruit, above all cherry. In Montepulciano, in Tuscany, the soil studies cited in the Vino Nobile rules point to three marks of the grape there: sour cherry (the Italians' amarena), violet and spice. With time in a barrel, the wine picks up oak notes and gets softer.

On the palate, Sangiovese is lively. Acidity (that freshness that makes you salivate) is its signature, and the tannin, the grip on your gums, comes through firm. The Brunello rules describe the wine as dry, warm and a little tannic. It's a red that wants food alongside: on its own it can seem hard, at the table it falls into place. That's why it usually shines more at dinner than as an aperitif.

What it pairs with

Sangiovese was born for the Italian table, and the Brazilian table inherited much of it. Mozzarella or calabresa sausage pizza, Sunday pasta with tomato sauce, lasagna bolognese, steak parmigiana, polpetone and roast chicken. The grape's acidity talks to the tomato's, and the tannin cleans the cheese fat from your mouth. The fuller ones, like a Brunello, go well with pot roast, lamb, mushrooms and aged cheese. It's a suggestion: if you liked it with something else, your taste is what counts.

Where it shines today

In Tuscany, it's the base of almost everything. Chianti Classico takes at least 80% Sangiovese; Chianti, 70% to 100%; Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, at least 70%; Morellino di Scansano, at least 85%. Brunello di Montalcino and Rosso di Montalcino are made from it alone. In Romagna, on the other side of the Apennines, Romagna Sangiovese calls for at least 85% of the grape.

Outside Italy, Sangiovese shows up in much smaller amounts. VIVC's area data, which are old, record vineyards of it in Argentina, France, Australia, Chile and South Africa. In Brazil, Embrapa's vineyard registry counted about 17 hectares in Rio Grande do Sul in 2012: it exists, but it's a rarity. In practice, anyone who wants to get to know the grape starts with Tuscany.

Its other names

VIVC records 115 synonyms for Sangiovese, and some of them show up on labels as if they were different grapes. In Montalcino it's called Brunello, which is where the wine's name comes from. In Montepulciano, Prugnolo Gentile. In southern Tuscany, Morellino; local tradition says the name comes from the morelli, bay horses that pulled the carriages up to Scansano. There's also Sangioveto, the name Baron Ricasoli used in 1872 and that Tuscany still uses.

Baron Ricasoli's recipe

In 1716, the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Cosimo III, marked out the Chianti area, which is today Chianti Classico, to protect the wine from counterfeits. More than a century later, Baron Bettino Ricasoli tested grape blends and wrote, in 1872, that Chianti gets most of its perfume from Sangioveto. It was the wine's first recipe, with Sangiovese at the center.

For a long time, that recipe even included white grapes. Italy's official grape registry, in a 1965 text, says it was common for Chianti to have one fifth white grapes and that Sangiovese alone made a somewhat rustic wine. The turning point came later: Chianti Classico began allowing 100% Sangiovese in 1996, and the 2006 vintage was the first with no white grapes at all.

Top rated with Sangiovese

Average rating from the people who drank it (X-Wines), from 1 to 5. Tap to see the wine's page.

• Soldera Case Basse Sangiovese ToscanaItaly · red · Sangioveserating ★ 4.8
• Soldera Brunello di Montalcino RiservaItaly · red · Sangioveserating ★ 4.8
• Antinori Tenuta Tignanello 'Solaia'Italy · red · Sangiovese, Cabernet Sauvignonrating ★ 4.7
• Casanova di Neri Cerretalto Brunello di MontalcinoItaly · red · Sangioveserating ★ 4.7
• Poggio di Sotto Brunello di Montalcino RiservaItaly · red · Sangioveserating ★ 4.7
• Castiglion del Bosco Millecento Brunello di Montalcino RiservaItaly · red · Sangioveserating ★ 4.7
• Biondi-Santi Brunello di Montalcino RiservaItaly · red · Sangioveserating ★ 4.7
• Valdicava Brunello di Montalcino Riserva Madonna del PianoItaly · red · Sangioveserating ★ 4.7

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