Sangiovese

[Coop]

At an excellent tasting last night at the Dudarave Wine Cellar the subject of Sangiovese and it's related grapes came up. Can we come up with a list of grapes that are related to this fine Italian grape. What about the grape used to make Vino Nobile de Montapulciano? Is it Prugnollo Gentile? What about Saggaarentino? I hope others share my interest on this subject.

Edited January 29, 2005 by Coop (log)

[winesonoma]

Valley of the Moon winery here in Sonoma makes a wonderful Rosatto De Sangiovese, a dry rose that is a great summer wine if you can find it.

[Brad Ballinger]

Here are some that all come from a book I have called Barron's Wine Lovers' Companion.

Sangioveto (I think this is used interchangeably with sangiovese, usually in Chianti, but I may be wrong about that)

Sangiovese Grosso, which also has a Brunello clone

Prugnolo, which is Sangiovese Grosso used in Vino Nobile di Montepulciano

Sangiovese Piccolo

Sangiovese di Romagna

Sangiovese Dolce

Calabrese

Sanvicetro

San Gioveto

But I know there is also Morellino (as in Morellino di Scansano)

And in Corsica it is called Nielluccio

[Rebel Rose]

There's also an 'Enrico Prati' clone that tastes very similar to zinfandel.

[Craig Camp]

The name sangiovese covers hundreds of clones (Banfi reports over 600) that spread through 2/3 of Italy. Each region had their own name for the types grown in their region. The two most famous are the Prugnolo Gentile of Montepulciano and Brunello of Montalcino, but even these names are not as precise as it would appear as there are also many clonal breakdowns of these sub-groups. Over the last two decades, intensive research on the clones of sangiovese has clearly identified clones that produce wines with more depth and concentration and, in reality, the same clones are being planted in all the best vineyards of Montalcino, Montepulciano and Chianti.

Sagrantino from the Montefalco zone in Umbria is not sangiovese, but is blended with sangiovese in Montefalco Rosso, while the increasingly famous Sagrantino di Montefalco is 100% Sagrantino.