by Dr. Bob Ouellette
with the Worcester Wine Tasters

 
Saturday, April 6,2002

Back from a short layoff during my recent sojourn in the sunny south, we gathered to taste some Italian sangiovese wines. To make things interesting, a few blended wines were included to see if a dose of cabernet sauvignon would add to the sangiovese. This is quite common now in Italy where we have the “Super Tuscans" commanding such high prices.  To be fair we did not add any of these but a few more modest wines that were in the same neighborhood.

                 As you can see, except for one wine, “Liano” a blend of cab and sangiovese , the scores were as close as could be, meaning to say that it was up to you to choose the wine you felt best suited your taste.

One wine was controversial, the 97 Isole e Olena chianti.  Some felt that it was corky , others disagreed. Nevertheless, I had this wine in the past and it certainly deserved more than this score.

                 All the wines showed good color except for the older one. Several, if not the majority, had abundant black cherry fruit. In the mouth, many had tobacco, spice, and leather that blended with soft tannin and complementing acidity. The younger wines promised more life and pleasure.

                 With the cost of Italian wines in general hitting high levels, there are still many wines that can be enjoyed by all. Most of these wines except for one or two, did not break the $20  level. The main problem that we probably have is that we do not invest as heavily in Italian wines as we do for other wines, thus accounting for our lack of appreciation of sangioveses. Another factor in our hesitation is the label which in many cases do not tell us much about the wines….too complicated especially for the newcomer or neophyte. Yet, a good sangiovese ranks right up there with the best of the red wines…..

drbob@oxfordwineroom.com