2021 Hugh Hamilton The Mongrel Sangiovese

It all seems so simple, after all it used to sit on red chequered table cloths, a bottle in a basket, right next to the powdered parmesan in a shaker. Somewhere along the way though Sangiovese didn’t so much reinvent as rediscover itself – immensely pleasurable, light on its feet but also assertive in its own particular way. Uniquely challenging to make well, this is a complex simple pleasure.

Sangiovese is enigmatic to the point of being problematic. It will not be pushed in a direction that it doesn’t want to go. I got a whole lot better at working with it when I realised that what I want matters very little to this grape. Sangiovese is unlike any other wine we make and while it has taken time to find a way to make it really express itself, I think now our Sangiovese is living its best life.