Mate Marinaia, Toscana, Italy
Italian red wine is normally as a very high quality if you spend the money and £30 a bottle you expect something quite special and this Mate Marinaia, Toscana is just that.
Made with sangiovese grape medium bodied wine with good subtle tannings, quite dry and balanced acidity. You get lots of flavours ranging from sour cherry and cranberry to blackcurrant and plum with tobacco and Oak notes coming through which are all well-balanced.
Tuscany chucks out hundreds of different great quality wines and a lot more good wines each year and this Poggio Badiola, Toscana is the latter. Its a blend of 70% Sangiovese, and 30% Merlot and it gives you aromas of black fruit such as blackberries, black cherries with spice and tobacco. These follow into the flavours but there’s also a toasty under tone in there I think. The finish a bit short and not quite as fully flavoured as I would like, even at £14 a bottle. This medium body, dry red is better with food, pizza, meat dishes or hard cheese.
Mazzei, Poggio Badiola, Toscana, 2015, Tuscany, Italy