Sangiovese Makes For a Great “Food Wine”

This week we continue our look at sangiovese, the primary grape used in wines from the Chianti region of Italy.

Sangiovese tends to be a bit on the acidic side, which is not necessarily a bad thing, because this allows the wine to hold its own against a wide variety of foods.

A prime example would be tomato-based pasta dishes, which are frequently paired with sangiovese in Italy. While the high acid content in tomatoes can cause most wines to fall flat on their face, sangiovese actually compliments this food by softening the astringency factor. This allows the wine’s other flavors – usually smoke, spice and nuances of dark fruit – to really shine through.

Sangiovese also matches up nicely with lighter beef dishes (think veal scaloppini) and even pairs well with pastas prepared in a heavy cream sauce such as fettuccini alfredo.

A couple of recommendations: The Banfi 2004 Chianti Classico (pictured at left, about $15) is a perfect example of the type of sangiovese enjoyed in Italy. I’d call this an elegant Chianti – relatively low in alcohol (12.5 percent), reserved sultry flavors of anise, leather and smoke, and a trace of dark cherry and pepper on the finish. I’d like to think of this wine as the quiet, sagely Italian patriarch seated at the dinner table. It doesn’t interfere with the meal by offering up unsolicited advice, and yet without it, the dining experience would be incomplete. Nice stuff.

“Americanized” versions of Chianti, as I like to call them, tend to place slightly more emphasis on sangiovese’s fruit flavors. Walla Walla’s Yellow Hawk Cellars 2004 Sangiovese (about $18) is an excellent example, with a good dash of bright, red cherry flavors prevailing over the wine’s spicy and smoky notes.

Also worth noting is the Cavatappi Winery 2006 Sangiovese (about $13) from Eastern Washington’s Wahluke Slope region. Although it’s still drinking a bit young, this is a sturdy, well-priced sangiovese that will pair well with heavier foods such as baked salmon or aged cheeses. Both the Yellow Hawk and Cavatappi wines are currently available at the The Vines wine shop, located at 1319 Cornwall Avenue in Bellingham.