A blend of sangiovese and syrah makes this Tuscan red food-friendly

Tuscany is Italy’s premier wine region, known for its top-notch red wines such as Chianti Classico Riserva and Brunello di Montalcino. But in the 1950s and ‘60s, this region was a source of oceans of value-tier Chianti that had a cheap and cheerful reputation, yesterday’s answer to today’s Argentine malbec.

Chiantis were quite pale and lightweight at the time, mainly because the best local wine grape was sangiovese, a thin-skinned variety that was low in color compounds.

But there were other reasons, too. Local tradition was to pursue quantity over quality, so it was the norm to aim for very heavy crop yields, to pick grapes before full maturity to avoid weather risks, and even to add a small amount of white grapes when making their red wines, all of which diluted their end product.

When the global fine wine revolution began in the 1970s, ambitious Tuscan winemakers began reducing yields to boost quality and explored other ways to to improve their wines, too, such as planting thicker-skinned French grapes such as cabernet sauvignon, merlot and syrah.

Blending small amounts of these grapes into their sangiovese deepened the color of their wines but also intensified flavor, enriched their texture, and enhanced their resistance to oxidation.

Nowadays, many Tuscan wineries still grow French grapes, but they are rarely used in as high a percentage as we see here with this unusual blend of 60% sangiovese to 40% syrah. Syrah adds a dark purple color and flavors of black pepper and blackberries to sangiovese’s classic tastes of sour red cherries and bitter endive. Together, they produce a satisfying and food-friendly red wine that is dry, clean and modern, but still undeniably Italian in style.

$16.69 14% alcohol

PLCB Item #4879

Sale price through April 2 – regularly $18.69

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