Octopus 2020 Sangiovese Adelaide Hills

Sangiovese was one of the first Italian red wines to hit our dining tables and it’s still an absolute winner! It’s rustic and earthy, full of red fruits and black olives with hints of dried herbs that weave around fine grain tannins that will make you want to graze on prosciutto, pecorino and olive oil mopped up with fresh crusty bread. The red cherry and plums are crying out for tomato based sauces and pizzas along with mushroom risotto with plenty of fresh oregano and thyme.

The grapes for this Sangiovese came from the Amadio vineyard in the Adelaide Hills and were hand picked and transported back to the winery in Melbourne, where they were hand sorted and destemmed and tipped into an open vat fermentor. Ferment was natural with no additions and took off after a few days of cold soak. The tank that we used was really tall and the only way we could plunge it properly was to climb up a ladder and lean right over with the hand plunger to make sure all of the grapes at the bottom were getting mixed. After deciding that our arms were not long enough and our bodies not dextrous enough, we created a plank over the top of the tank to make it way easier and safer! Darn those wineries made for tall people! After ferment, we left the grapes on skins for a couple weeks to get more flavour and structure out of the grapes and then pressed them out and tucked the wine away safely into old French oak barriques for over 12 months.