Montidori Sangiovese Romagna

“A rich, bold and fruity Italian red” it says on the label. But there’s more to this than meets the eye (and nose and mouth) and for a snip under $20 you’re picking up a real bargain here.

Sangiovese (san-joh-vay-say) is Italy’s most famous and planted variety with over a whopping 55,000 hectares. Best known as the Tuscan wine such as Chianti and Brunello di Montalcino – there are serious bargains to be found outside of that region if you know what you’re looking for.

That’s where NZ Master of Wine Steve Bennett steps in. He’s made a career out of travelling around the globe and sorting out the good stuff from the not-so-good stuff. It has to tick plenty of boxes (included seriously good bang for buck) to convince him to import it back into NZ.

From the heart of Italy and the rolling hillside vineyards of Emilia-Romagna, this Montidori Sangiovese does plenty of box ticking and as Steve calls it a “Supercharged modern, Sangiovese that combines Italian characters with new world fruit.”

A portion of the grapes used were dried in small baskets to help concentrate the flavours. The result is a gorgeous, highly drinkable medium bodied red with cherry, berry and spice flavours. All packaged in a super cool ancient style ‘squat’ bottle. Ddon’t stress – there’s still 750ml in there!