Skin in the Game - April 21, 2023

We have a Sangiovese Rosé and a Sangiovese red wine that I would like to invite you to taste side-by-side.  This is exciting for me for a few reasons; first we are drinking wine, we can also see first-hand what the grape skins do for a wine, and perhaps we can dispel the rumor that it is poor form to make wine from juice.

Sangiovese – click here for pronunciation - is an Italian grape grown largely in Tuscany and used for blending in such wines as Chianti, or Super Tuscan Blends.  The DNA dates it back to the 16th century and it has up to 4 clones.  Brunello being the most regarded clone and our choice for winemaking. Sangiovese is a medium to high tannin grape and is high in acid.

For the rosé, we crushed the Sangiovese grapes and let the juice soak on the skins for a few hours.  This is called a cold soak.  The skins and the juice were only together long enough to pull some of the beautiful coral color out of the skins but not enough to bring along any tannins. Our Sangiovese Rosé has a nose of ripe strawberries. Like any good wine there are a few other characteristics such as a little spice, and some savory cherry that can be tasted in this wine. 

Unlike the rosé wine technique, the Sangiovese red wine sat on the skins for 2 weeks during fermentation and underwent “punch down” 2 – 3 times a day during that period.  Punch down is a manual way of pushing the skins into the juice to keep them moist and to try and get every bit of tannin, color, and other phenolic characteristic we can get out of the skins.  This Sangiovese red wine is earthy, with tart cherry, red plum, strawberry, and fig.  The same grape, two very different techniques, and two very different wines.

In white wine making we don’t want to pull any color or any tannins from the skins, so we don’t cold soak the juice on the skins.  We crush and pull the juice off the skins right away.  The benefit in purchasing juice over grapes for white wines is that grapes are crushed, and the juice is pulled off immediately following harvesting. The juice is by far fresher and the process much cleaner than waiting for grape delivery from the distributor and then crushing the grapes and discarding the skins. 

If you miss the happy hour tonight and want the experience of a side-by-side tasting, check us out this weekend at Life’s Patina in Malvern or at next weeks Cheesiest Happy Hour.  We can make it happen if we have the wine!

Saluti!

Sharon