Tonight for dinner, we had a 2008 Sangiovese from the Conejo Valley Wine Co-op. This wine was made before Dorianne and I joined. We were gifted two bottles by our winemaker, Richard Clark, after a former member turned some wine back to the co-op.

From Wikipedia: Sangiovese (san-jo-veh-zeh^[1] [sandʒoˈveːze]) is a red Italian wine grape variety that derives its name from the Latin sanguis Jovis, “the blood of Jove“.^[2] Though it is the grape of most of central Italy from Romagna down to Lazio, Campania and Sicily, outside Italy it is most famous as the only component of Brunello di Montalcino andRosso di Montalcino and the main component of the blend Chianti, Carmignano, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano andMorellino di Scansano, although it can also be used to make varietal wines such as Sangiovese di Romagna and the modern “Super Tuscan” wines like Tignanello.^[3]

Sangiovese was already well known by the 16th century. Recent DNA profiling by José Vouillamoz of the Istituto Agrario di San Michele all’Adige suggests that Sangiovese’s ancestors are Ciliegiolo and Calabrese Montenuovo. The former is well known as an ancient variety in Tuscany, the latter is an almost-extinct relic from the Calabria, the toe of Italy.^[4] At least fourteen Sangiovese clones exist, of which Brunello is one of the best regarded. An attempt to classify the clones into Sangiovese grosso (including Brunello) and Sangiovese piccolo families has gained little evidential support.^[5]

The wine was simply amazing – elegant, with a nose of fruit and spice, smooth in the mouth and clearly a wonderful wine. Kudos to Dennis Weiher, our former winemaker for this one!

For more info on our wine co-op, go to this link.