Lesson #2 — Sangiovese — Is it worth it to pay more for Classico/Riserva?
The short answer…YES.
Last week we had a Sangiovese tasting party! 🎉🎉 We wanted to find out a few things:
- What does the true expression of the Sangiovese taste like?
- Is it worth it to spend the extra $5-$10 for a Clasico or Riserve?
What does JUST Sangiovese taste like? This grape is used in a ton of different types of wine (i.e Chianti, Chianti Classico). Chianti’s are one of my absolute favorite styles of wine, which is usually made up of mainly Sangiovese and a blending grape or two. The two most prominent main flavors we agreed on were Sour Cherry and Strawberry. Some of us also picked up on a smokey/tabacco-ey flavor too. These wines are usually super high in acidity and super high in tannins. If you’re not sure what tannins are, it’s basically that feeling of your tounge drying out and sticking to the roof of your mouth (you’ll sometimes hear people say a wine is ‘grippy’). It basically just means that the grapes used had really thick skin.
Should I spend the extra $5-ish for a Chianti Clasico? Absolutely yes. We were blown away how much better the classico tasted than the regular Chianti. It’s still a little hard for me to articulate exactly WHY it was better other than ‘I just thought it tasted better’. Everything going on just seemed so well balanced..not too fruity, not too smokey. Not too acidic. Not too tannic. All the components just worked really well with one another. And if you’re wondering, the term Classico references a particular 100 square mile region of Italy where the grapes have to be harvested from.
Hope you learned something…I know we did! If you want to taste the difference yourself go ask your local wine shop for these three bottles:
- Sangiovese (make sure the label says ‘sangiovese’ and nothing else)
- Chianti
- Chianti Classico (or Classico Riserva)
Keep on Sipping Happy!
- Sean
