It’s thin-skinned and it waits around for a while in the sun before ripening. It’s the hip red grape of the moment and it’s not only Italian but is the most satisfyingly Italian to say: sangiovese. Rolls off the tongue like Gina Lollabrigida. Rolls down the throat like, well sangiovese. For the appeal of sangiovese is a very particular thing. Its most ardent promoter in Australia is Michael Trembath, importer of wines Italian and distributor of Australia’s best range made with Italian varieties, Garry Crittenden’s i collection. ‘It’s the most drinkable variety, I think. Shiraz is spicy and peppery, that’s positive. Cabernet is blackcurrant and leafy, positive in fruit dimension. Pinot noir is much the same. Sangiovese is not like that. It’s a winey, vinous dry red which you can drink a lot of, every day. Its high degree of acidity refreshes the palate while eating. Its softer tannins are usually approachable,’ he explains. Sangiovese is the indigenous noble Tuscan variety responsible for, amongst other things, Chianti and Brunello di Montalcino. With the upsurge in interest in Italian cuisine, it’s only natural that it’s becoming part of the Australian wine vocabulary. And although Garry Crittenden’s 1996 Sangiovese is startlingly similar to premium young Chianti (it was actually modelled on Badiola), it’s unlikely that Australian sangiovese will consistently resemble the Italian original. Other than the Crittenden wine, which was sourced from the Pizzini vineyard in Victoria’s King Valley, Australia’s most convincing sangioveses to date have come from the McLaren Vale and Mudgee. Mark Lloyd’s Coriole vineyard is responsible not only for the Coriole’s sangiovese, matured in larger, older oak, but also for winemaker Steven Hall’s own Cherise wine, the recipient of small oak maturation. Under the stewardship of Carlo Corino, sangiovese also materialised at the Montrose vineyard at Mudgee during the 1970s. Present owners Orlando Wyndham have finally relented and allowed Montrose’s sangiovese dry red, made faithfully every year by Robert Paul, to be bottled under its own label. Other small plantings are found at Pike’s vineyard at Clare (1 ha), the Swan Valley (WA) and at Cape Mentelle at Margaret River, while Penfolds has around half an acre at Kalimna in the Barossa Valley. Next year Penfolds will make its first commercial wine from sangiovese. Believing it to be best suited to warmer Australian climates north of the Great Divide, Gary Crittenden has encouraged grapegrower Michael Murtagh to include five acres of sangiovese in his new vineyard development at Rutherglen and is involved in planting another five near Avoca next year. ‘Of all the Italian varieties, sangiovese will be the easiest to sell, given the new affinity we have with the wines of Chianti and Tuscany. It’s an easier taste for people to understand than barbera and nebbiolo’, he says. Trembath is convinced that sangiovese has a fine future downunder. ‘I find it surprising that we have restricted ourselves to French varieties for so long. The future for sangiovese is linked to its quality and people are going to have to work with it and experiment to get the best out of it’, he says. ‘Australian makers make clean, easy wines from shiraz and cabernet, which they follow like a recipe, but the best Chianti isn’t pristine wine like that. You can’t do that with sangiovese. It’s a little bit capricious and like pinot noir, you must learn again how to make it.’ Mike Trembath estimates that the Australian production of sangiovese will increase from its present level of 200-300 cases per year to 900 boxes in less than three years. While these are hardly chardonnay-like figures, it does suggest that more people will need to try it and like it. So, if you’re prepared to accept the challenge, you could do worse than to start with these:
