Good morning, all,

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend.

Simon’s Wine of the Week is Cortestrada Sangiovese!

You may be thinking, why is Simon’s Wine of the Week a humble House Wine? Surely, he sits around at home, in his boudoir, having grapes peeled for him whilst drinking Meursault 1er Cru from a monogrammed silver goblet. Well, I do (except for the grapes bit – I’m not a fan of grapes unless they are fermented). But I am also obsessed by house wine. Why? Well, it’s easy to make the top end of a wine menu shine – chuck in a few European classics, sprinkle in some New World gems, stir in a soupcon of super crazy weird stuff you’ve never heard of for the wine bores like me, and there’s the expensive bit done. But any venue that serves wine will be judged on its house.

That’s why getting the house is so key to any restaurant, bar or pub. So, what a joy it was to taste this lovely Italian house red last week at a couple of venues.

The grape is Sangiovese, which roughly translated means ‘Blood of Jupiter’. When tasting it you can see why; it has a ferrous, iron like quality in the background that can be reminiscent of blood. Don’t let that put you off though, there’s lots of lovely red fruit and spice in foreground of any Sangiovese to stop any vampiric tendencies developing. It also usually has pretty high acidity which makes it such a good wine for pairing with Italian food.

It’s most famous for making wine in Tuscany, where it is the main grape of Chianti. It soars to its greatest heights though in the picturesque town of Montalcino, where it makes one of Italy’s greatest wines, Brunello di Montalcino. Whilst Tuscany is Sangiovese’s spiritual heartland it is grown all over Italy, where it is the most planted red grape variety. This particular Sangiovese is grown in Emilia-Romagna, a large region that makes up the top of the ‘thigh’ of Italy.

So, the wine itself – it looks great; it has a lovely translucent ruby colour when poured into the glass. On the nose it’s got some really attractive red fruit – strawberry and raspberry mainly - with a little darker cherry in the background, and those classic Sangiovese iron filings giving it some depth. The palate is light, juicy and fresh, with quite high acidity, more red fruit and darker cherry notes, a whisper of tannin to give it structure, and a little caramel on the finish. At the end of my tasting note I wrote the words, ‘Excellent lighter wine. House. Superb’, which gives you an idea of how much I enjoyed it.

Drink this on its own (you could chill down slightly as it has quite low tannins), or it will make a superb partner for tomato-based pasta or pizza.

Have a great week,

Simon