Sangiovese Rosé

Rosato from Sangiovese is a different proposition from the pale rosés of southern France, and deliberately so. Italian rosato has generally kept more colour, more grip and more savoury character, on the principle that it should work at the dinner table rather than as an aperitif.

The most codified version is Cerasuolo d'Abruzzo, though that is made from Montepulciano rather than Sangiovese. Sangiovese rosato is made across central Italy — Tuscany, Romagna, Umbria, the Marche — often as a by-product of the red harvest, where juice is bled off to concentrate what remains. That saignée origin gives a deeper cherry-pink colour and a firmer, more tannic frame than direct pressing would.

Sangiovese brings to it exactly what it brings to red wine: sour cherry, high acidity, a faintly bitter almond finish and a savoury, herbal, slightly dusty quality. The fruit is red rather than tropical, and the wine is nearly always bone dry. It has more tannin than most rosé, which is the reason it handles tomato-based dishes, grilled meat and cured ham rather than folding under them.

The better examples come from producers who pick specifically for rosato rather than treating it as a way of improving the red, and they age rather better than the category's reputation suggests — a year or two in bottle softens the edges without losing the acidity.

It is worth being clear that Cerasuolo di Vittoria, from Sicily, is an unrelated red wine made from Nero d'Avola and Frappato, despite the shared word.