If this newsletter were announcing the release of the latest vintage of Pinot Noir from Dehlinger, Rochioli, or Williams & Selyem, you’d be a fool not to have your credit card poised. But it wasn’t that long ago that California Pinot had less than revered status. (Well maybe it was a while back because I was still in college and working in the wine department of the Bellevue, Washington Safeway.) Anyhow, way back then, California was considered too warm and California winemakers too green to produce great Pinot. Today, I’m noticing a similar negative, or at best skeptical, attitude from wine purveyors toward California Sangiovese. Having just bottled our second successful vintage of the stuff, I say it’s time for a little perspective.

Clearly the Pinot pioneers drew inspiration from the great wines of Burgundy. You know, the wines that can buckle your knees like a Barry Zito curveball. These loony, er, dedicated winemakers were willing to try anything to make a wine with the magic of their favorite Musigny. There was a lot of testing, experimenting, and a lot of failures, but eventually most folks realized that greatness in Pinot Noir must come, first and foremost, from finding the right vineyard site, the right clone, and maintaining a low-yield farming philosophy. This wasn’t a popular path because of the expense, but for those who took it, it worked.

Ispirazione Italiana

More and more the wine that gets me googley-eyed is a well-made Sangiovese from Tuscany.  Burgundy is great, but it is a little too pretentious and pricey for me. It’s like having a Porsche too precious to drive. I like Sangiovese for its versatility, both in when you can drink it and what you can drink it with. Good Sangiovese showcases dark fruit, dried flowers and earth all strung together by vibrant acidity. It is simultaneously gorgeous, yet down to earth; zesty and elegant. And it’s a taste that definitely grows on you. Pinot Noir might be Mozart, but Sangiovese is Monk. (Does that mean Merlot is Liberace?)

Dad’s reasons for loving Sangiovese are far more spiritual. The first sip transports him back to the storybook town square in Greve, Tuscany where he’d be toting a chunk of fresh local pecorino, a loaf of bread and salametti. Or maybe he’ll remember the medieval enoteca in Montalcino when we stood gazing at a wall of Brunello di Montalcino trying to decide which one to taste first.

Just Say Moderno

If you consider how far winemakers have come with Pinot Noir in California, there isn’t any reason why the same strides can’t be made with Sangiovese. As with Pinot, remarkable California Sangiovese will require an irrational commitment from a few (how shall we say it) "outside the norm" winemakers who first, are familiar with the world’s top Sangioveses and second, are willing to adopt the same spare-no-expense attitude towards making great wine. We get an assist on the learning curve by following the somewhat recent transformation of Sangiovese in Italy. Back at that medieval enoteca in Montalcino, we found that even if you don’t recognize the labels you can learn a lot from the kind gentleman behind the bar by asking "tradizionale" or "moderno"? We learned that "tradizionale" meant the wines spent far to much time (like two years too much time) in questionable wood under even more questionable cellar practices and were tired (oxidized) upon release. The current wine scene in Tuscany finds producers who focus on, you guessed it, vineyard sites, clones, low-yield farming and sound (clean) cellar practices, including aging in small oak barrels for shorter periods of time (1 to 2 years). These modern producers, who favor quality over quantity, have thrust Tuscany into the spotlight of world class wines in a relatively short period of time.
The Sangiovese Learning Curve

Inspired by the above producers, Dad planted Sangiovese in 1992, unaware of the steep learning curve that lay ahead. He intuitively felt that Dry Creek’s climate was well suited to the variety. Daytime temperatures are warm enough to develop nice flavors and the cool evenings keep the fruit lively. The only clone of Sangiovese available at the time was the Sangiovese "grosso" clone. Clonal variation seems to be rampant in Sangiovese and I‘m sure Dad would have agonized, researched, consulted, and agonized some more had he been given a choice of clones. Sometimes its better to be lucky than good.

Sangiovese "grosso" (referring to grape’s size, which is larger than the "piccolo" clone grown in Chianti) is grown in the hills of Montalcino. There it’s called Brunello (meaning brown) because the grapes turn a dusky dark color upon ripeness. It produces the richest most powerful example of Sangiovese in Italy.  Dad then found out that luck and intuition can only go so far. Good Sangiovese, like Pinot Noir, mandates severe pruning methods, specific leaf canopy management, and crop thinning. Sound costly? It is. I honestly believe that were it not for the lasting impression of a Fontodi Chianti my Dad wouldn’t have bothered. As I’ve mentioned in previous issues, young vine Sangiovese (most Sangiovese in California is less than 15 years old) produces a prodigious amount of grapes, which can lead to thin, tart wines. But with such strict vineyard practices, this vineyard now yields darker more full-bodied wines than in the past.

I’ve had to learn to be mindful of the grape’s fragile nature in the winery as well. Once again, as with Pinot Noir, less yields more. We racked our ‘99 Sangiovese only once (as opposed to three times with our other wines) and that was done with nitrogen to minimize oxidation. I haven’t the guts to fine or filter Sangiovese, partly because this would mean extra handling. We have also been careful about oak aging. Sangiovese tends to soak up oak character quickly, so we are using a combination of older French oak barrels and large French puncheons (350 liter). Everything we do, or don’t do, is to maintain the fruit. Not that we‘ve had all successes. We had a few sketchy home-wine vintages before ‘98, but early Pinot Noir had a few bumps, too. Remember when it was cool to throw stems back into the fermenter because that is how Henri Jayer used to do it in Echezeaux? And we wondered why those wines tasted funny. Progress never comes easy.

Granted, the 1999 is only our second nice Sangiovese. Like this season’s Oakland A’s, we never expected to do this well with such little experience. But if we were going up against Felsina or Fontodi in a playoff series we would definitely take ’em to a game 7.

1999 SANGIOVESE Dry Creek Valley
   I’ve been tasting this wine over the past year and come to the conclusion that 1999 was a unique, perhaps even magical vintage for our Sangiovese. I thought our 1998 Sangiovese was nice because it came from an abysmally low crop. And while Dad farmed it pretty much the same in 1999, I remember gingerly telling him there might be just a few too many grapes on the vines to produce the kind of wine we wanted from this varietal. It is an interesting dynamic when the grower/winemaker discussion is also a father/son discussion. So, in true Father-Knows-Best form, the wine turned out to be our most concentrated effort to date. What do I know?

What’s so special about this year’s model? I hate to admit it, but nature still has a significant role in producing remarkable wines. (This wine makes me think of my daughters — they possess uncanny natural beauty that had very little to do with me.) The late cool growing season allowed the Sangiovese to fully ripen without losing acidity. Another year of experience also helped. The vines were a year older, Dad and the gang did a better job of farming the fruit and we handled the wine more delicately in the cellar. Our Sangiovese this year is almost as dark as our 1999 Syrah.

This 100% Sangiovese is dark and full-bodied with a deep fruity mid-palate to balance out the nervy acidity and tannins. After doing extensive comparative tasting (someone has to do it and besides I thought that is what you did when you called yourself a winemaker), I would say our wine is similar to a Rosso di Montalcino — a wine that is made from the Sangiovese grosso clone and spends only a year in wood, thus highlighting fruit.

Our Sangiovese has the depth and structure to age five to seven years, however, as we always do, we recommend drinking it within the next three years.

Cases produced: 784
Harvested: 10/01/99
Oak Aging: 12 months French oak, 15% new
Total acidity: 0.63g/100ml
Ph: 3.57
Bottled: unfined, unfiltered 9/6/00
Alcohol: 14.4%
Blend: 100% Sangiovese
Release Date: January 19, 2001

COMING NEXT SUMMER:  Sangiovese Riserva. We’ve held back some ‘99 Sangiovese and put it in brand new oak. We’ll bottle it in November.

4 2 0 2   D r y   C r e e k   R o a d  -  H e a l d s b u r g  C A  9 5 4 4 8          -         t e l  7 0 7 -  4 3 3 - 5 5 9 0  /  f a x   7 0 7  -  4 3 3 - 5 5 9 1

Copyright ã 1997-2006 Unti Vineyards. All rights reserved.