Chianti tastings: what's wrong with me?

I expect it’s probably heresy to say that you don’t like Chianti, or sangiovese or Tuscan wine in general. So I’ll start this post with a couple of caveats: I haven’t tried much of this style and haven’t attended many Chianti tastings. In addition, sangiovese is not really a choice of wine I normally go for, and I haven’t had many good examples.

But! at our lesson on Monday on Tuscany, I’m afraid the examples we tasted didn’t do much for my Chianti loving experience. This is also probably because the wine was too young, and if you know anything about sangiovese, you’ll know its tannins need time to settle down. Also, good examples of Tuscan wine are expensive and let’s face it, a sommelier’s course costs enough already without having the pretence to serve the best wines.

These wines, for me, need food. While the nebbiolo we have tasted so far was pushing into what the Italians call a “meditation” wine, the sangiovese needed some nice Tuscan meat (possibly chianina?) to go with it. So my Chianti drinking and Tuscan wine experience needs some nurturing, unless I get hold of a Bolgheri after which I imagine I will be converted to Tuscan wine (at the right price).