When first visiting Italy’s historic Romagna wine region in 2018 to report upon it for a French sommelier magazine, I was impressed by the attention to and execution of improvements in the viticulture and vinification in an area once fobbed off as a good choice for inexpensive Sangiovese for quaffing when Tuscany’s were too expensive or earthy to list. Upon returning last month, it was apparent the past six years have seen continued attention to detail with the amount of merely average wines plummeting in the face of so many rising to an aggregate of goodness along with many flashes of brilliance.
“Taste always comes first, and there must be space for winemakers such as us along with companies creating larger volumes,” proclaimed Ancarani’s Rita Babini who, with her partner Claudio in work and life since 2005, biodynamically farms 14,5 hectares of vines. “People still look to our region for low price[d], easy wine,” she continues. “We are affordable, but I don’t want to compromise my Sangiovese in expressing its terroir.”
This was reflected in her firm and mildly complex 2022 Biagio Antico Oriolo Superiore DOC we shared at Bologna’s Scatto Matto, perfectly paired with a lightly spiced rabbit terrine by Simone Ferrara. “It’s a responsibility we have to the variety to respect the balance with the vintage, with drought and flooding becoming our greatest challenge,” says Babini.
Chef/owner Derek Wagner of Providence, Rhode Island’s Nick’s on Broadway gravitates to winemakers that’re owner-operators “who have a passion for the power of food and wine as an expression of culture” as he does with farmers who supply his partially Italian-style menu. The mutual respect he enjoys with broker Natalie Volpe led him to the brothers Navacchia’s Tre Monti and his friendship with Vittorio.
“Tre Monti wines are in regular rotation by the glass,” says Wagner. “By the bottle with its delicious Campo di Mezzo Sangiovese [is] a great gateway for four-tops that’re having a wide mix of plates and mix of drinkers as it doesn’t lean heavy in any one direction, and it overperforms in quality with its $42 sell price.”
If seeking a deeper, richer style, its organically grown Thea riserva bottling from the Forlì subzone fits the bill whether drunk young or a few years after bottling.
Beppe & Gianni’s Trattoria in Eugene, Oregon has stocked Sangiovese di Romagna for decades with Owner Beppe Macchi “falling in love” with Zerbina wines made by Cristina Geminiani.
“The simplicity of how she approaches the wine business working the vines, making the wine, and doing the marketing has kept me pouring her soft, cherry-accented Ceregio Sangiovese for over 15 years,” says Macchi. “It’s very harmonious, less aggressively tannic than a typical Chianti.”
He agreed that the local palate and the friendlier style of Oregon’s cuisine suits this, accounting for his selling a case of Ceregio weekly amongst the 12, mostly Italian, reds he regularly pours.
Geminiani also helped raise the bar for her region’s best expressions with her signature Monografia riserva bottlings, inspired in part from techniques learned when working with the legendary Denis Dubourdieu. Since 2016, it’s been based upon several passages, with each vintage made in a different single, often albarello-trained, vineyard.
Wine Director Fabien Rety of California’s Watershed Mill Valley both bemoans and celebrates the five cases annually allocated to him by North Berkeley Imports of Chiara Condello’s 2021 Sangiovese Predappio, which he pours at $17. He follows this rising star and keeps bottles of her riserva on the list. Rety thinks the Missouri pork chop now on the menu pairs perfectly with Condello’s Sangiovese, though the 100% organic pizzas fashioned from local growers (even the flour is grown & milled nearby) are enjoyed during its limited tenure.
Following her studies, Condello stepped into her family wine business in 2015, later setting her sights on wine production methodology as she created her self-titled project. Having tasted her commendable early efforts in 2018 and more laudable ones a few weeks before her Manhattan appearance, Condello’s well deserving of the praise shown her by Rety and the many media who’ve discovered hers and her family’s wines.
Echoing my starting sentiments, Vermont-based Iacopo Di Teodoro has imported Marco Cirese’s Noelia Ricci portfolio since 2016. He thought a recent Manhattan presentation by Romagna’s consortium compelling. “At 2019’s event, the wines were more heterogenous,” says Di Teodoro. “The buyer had to distinguish between varying levels of quality, and now we see that Romagna winegrowers have created a clear identity far apart from the bulk wines popular in the ‘90s and the more barrique-fashioned wines in the ‘00s. Marco’s one of many now making Sangiovese with an identity that’s bright, alive, complex, but never overpowering.”
Unusual in sharing praise for his competitors, Di Teodoro lauded the Tre Monti wines he formerly thought a bit too “masculine” but that now show finesse, and he admired vintner Geminiani’s dedication to constant improvement.
While concurring with Di Teodoro about Zerbina and Tre Monti Sangioveses, Noelia Ricci, especially his minerally and poised Godenza vineyard bottling, is no less elevated from the examples I tasted in 2018.
Drei Donà, La Sabbiona, La Viola, and Ottaviani are other Romagna wineries with US distribution producing Sangiovese (and other fine wines) worthy of your attention. These and those above are amongst the best Romagnoli wines with Italy’s most widely planted red of Sangiovese, in its indigenous Centesimino and white Albana—all deserving respect, purchase, and enjoyment.
Since 1986, David Furer has served in the on- and off-premise trenches in his native U.S. and former adoptive homes of Great Britain and Germany; directed & hosted international wine business conferences in Europe, Asia, and online concerned with its future and climate change; and contributed to wines & spirits media outlets in the U.S. and Great Britain. He also provides marketing & communications expertise to organizations throughout the world from his New York home while somehow finding time to host the consumer-facing podcast Drinking on the Edge. You can reach him at rerufd@gmail.com.
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