Sangiovese
  Tasting - Sangiovese

There are some distinct similarities between the growing region of Tuscany, Italy, and parts of the Foothills. This has resulted in some great Sangioveses being created in California that make for a wine that can be quite similar to those made in parts of Tuscany. We found one of those wines and decided to try it against a very nice one made in Italy. The clone of Sangiovese used is one of the best, Brunello, and can produce a wine of incredible depth and complexity. The similarities between these two wines were amazing. True to the Brunello di Montalcino clone these were both very big wines,great with food, but equally good for sipping after dinner. The tasters felt the California wine had the better nose, but the Italian wine had the better palate. To read more about the Van der Vijver Estate, go to Sierra Wines

  La Selvaccia 2000
Montalcino, Italy
Brunello di Montalcino $69		 Van der Vijver 2001
Sierra Foothills Sangiovese $35
Nose This wine opened slower than the other, but continued to evolve for quite some time when it did. It has oak, pepper, dark earth, licorice, cherry and even a hint of floral and a little black cherry. This wine had the more complex nose offering cedar, tea, red raspberry, plum, licorice, tea, chocolate, butter and then moved to toast, cloves and cedar after opening more.
Palate This is where this one shined. Every time you returned to it you found something new waiting for you. It started with some great meatiness, tart blackberry and black cherry, tea, anise, spice and coffee. It soon evolved to reveal vanilla and chocolate.

This was very nicely complex on the palate starting with some nice red cherries and nice spicy pepper then moved more to vanilla and oak spice and coffee. Although not quite as complex as the Italian version, this was no simple wine!

Complexity This was a very complex wine that continued to change as it crossed the palate and into the long finish. This is a nicely complex wine with beautifully bold, intertwined flavors.
Finish The finish was a bit more delicate than the California wine, with tea and anise moving to fruit and spice at the end. The duration was very long and never really seemed to disappear all the way, This wine also had a very long finish, bigger on red fruit and the nice oak spice well balanced with the coffee that was present early in the palate.
Overall Impression This was a great wine, beautifully balanced, significantly complex with a finish that was very long with an ability to change with time. All the signs of a really good wine. This was a well balanced wine with very good complexity and a pleasant, long finish. For half the price of the Italian wine this is definitely a bargain and well worth its price.