SANGIOVESE
“Sangiovese is for Italy what Cabernet is for France: these are wines that express the viticultural and winemaking identity of a country”. (Giacomo Tachis) Sangiovese is the absolute king of the red wines of central Italy, where it is practically present in every area, and in its different clonal varieties it continues to prove its unquestioned qualities thanks also to the various expressions of the territories in which it’s grown. Ampelographers believe that the place of origin of Sangiovese is the Apennine area between Tuscany and Romagna, areas where it still represents the most important red berried grape. The origin and provenance of Sangiovese is very difficult to identify: the news on one of the best known and most cultivated vines in Italy is very fragmentary and unreliable. To obtain information, we must first wait until the 16th century, when Soderini, in 1590, described it in his treatise “The cultivation of vines” saying that: “Sangiocheto or Sangioveto is a remarkable grape for its regular productivity”. But it is believed that this famous grape was already known more than 2000 years ago and that it was used by the Etruscans for the production of wine. Even the origin of the name is uncertain and the hypotheses are different: there are those who want it to come from San Giovanni, those who instead believe that it came from dialect forms (from “san giovannina”, early grape, given its early budding), those who swear that it comes from blood of Jupiter (Sanguis Jovis). In Marche it’s historically used in combination with Montepulciano, as it can bring to it acidity, freshness and tannins.
