Speaking of Sangiovese…
I wasn’t able to go to my “company picnic” this summer, because I work in a restaurant and someone had to be there to feed the hungry people. The next morning, my manager handed me a bottle of wine. Apparently, I had been entered in a raffle and won the wine in absentia. Never being one to turn down free…anything…I took the wine more than happily.
I opened it the other day, and experienced something completely different from the last Sangiovese I had (the Il Turchino Chianti). Luna Vineyards‘s 1999 Sangiovese was a much better sipping wine than the Il Turchino would have been. It was incredibly smooth, with low acidity and tannins, and hints of black pepper, almonds, and tobacco. For a meal, I’d pair this wine with a roast chicken, but it was so good to drink on its own, I think I’d like it with a simple cheese plate with apples, walnuts, and hard cheeses.
We didn’t finish the bottle that first night, and I thought I’d drink it with dinner the next night to keep it fresh. Unfortunately, we had pizza for dinner. The wine was still good, the pizza was good, but the combination of the two was…less than good. I do not reccommend drinking this wine with pizza! It was not pretty.
This wine retails for around $19.99. The Luna 1999 Sangiovese Reserve retails for $40.