Romagna Sangiovese

Appears in
Oxford Companion to Wine

By Jancis Robinson

Published 2006

  • About

Romagna Sangiovese, quantitatively important varietal doc made from the most widely cultivated red grape variety in romagna. In 2010 a total of 7,100 ha/17,537 acres of Sangiovese were planted, with some 3,000 ha registered for the production of DOC wine.

The reputation of the zone has been sullied by production rules geared towards high yields and quick turnover of wines, by the mediocre quality of much of the wine produced, especially by the co-operatives that dominate here, and by the erroneous belief that the clones of sangiovese in Romagna are inferior to those in Tuscany. Sangiovese di Romagna is part of the same Sangiovese Grosso group as, for example, brunello, but old bush vines around Predappio in Romagna appear to be of the Lamole variety, which has a higher phenolic content and produces smaller grapes resulting in higher extract in the final wines.