Nebbiolo vs Sangiovese: Italy’s Two Great Reds Explained

Nebbiolo and Sangiovese are the two grapes behind Italy’s most famous reds. Nebbiolo makes Barolo and Barbaresco in the fog of Piedmont, in the north-west. Sangiovese makes Chianti and Brunello di Montalcino in the sunshine of Tuscany, in the centre. Both are pale, high in acid and firm in tannin, both smell of cherries and both go with food rather than without it, which is where the resemblance ends. One is a monk and the other is a market trader.

Table of Contents

1. The short version
2. Nebbiolo: the difficult one
3. Sangiovese: the everyday one
4. The Australian angle
5. What to buy
6. What to eat with them
7. Frequently asked questions

The short version

	Nebbiolo	Sangiovese
Home	Piedmont: Barolo, Barbaresco, Langhe, Roero, Gattinara	Tuscany: Chianti, Brunello di Montalcino, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano
Colour	Pale garnet, turns orange-brown early	Medium ruby
Smells of	Tar and roses, dried cherry, liquorice, truffle, leather	Sour cherry, tomato leaf, dried herbs, leather, balsamic
Tannin	Very high; fierce when young	High but friendlier
Acidity	Very high	High
Body	Medium, but it feels bigger than it looks	Medium
Ready to drink	Barolo needs five to ten years; the best go thirty	Chianti is ready on release; Brunello wants five to ten
Price	Rarely cheap	From cheap to serious
Name means	Fog (nebbia), for the mist at harvest	Blood of Jupiter (sanguis Jovis)

Nebbiolo: the difficult one

Nebbiolo ripens late, into the last days of October, when fog rolls into the Langhe hills and gives the grape its name. It is a small, prestigious crop: about 5,500 hectares in Piedmont, a little over three per cent of the region’s wine, because it only ripens properly on the best south-facing slopes and the locals plant easy Barbera everywhere else. The wine it makes looks deceptively light, pale garnet that browns at the rim within a few years, and then hits you with tannin and acid like nothing else. Young Barolo is a wine that dries your whole mouth. Give it time and it becomes one of the great wines of the world: tar and roses, dried cherry, truffle, leather, and a perfume that fills the room. Barolo must spend 18 months in oak and three years ageing before release; Barbaresco, from a few kilometres away, gets 9 months in oak and 21 months in total, and is a little softer and earlier to drink.

Sangiovese: the everyday one

Sangiovese is Italy’s most planted red grape, more than 100,000 hectares of it, and it is the backbone of every Chianti you have ever drunk. It is a child of two obscure old grapes, Ciliegiolo and Calabrese di Montenuovo, and it has been in Tuscany for centuries. The wine is medium ruby, smells of sour cherry, tomato leaf and dried herbs, and has the acid and grip that make it want a plate of pasta rather than a sofa. Chianti can include a small share of other grapes (Cabernet is capped at 15 per cent); Brunello di Montalcino, its grand, expensive cousin from further south, must be Sangiovese alone and can age for 20 years. The so-called Super Tuscans of the 1970s and 1980s were Sangiovese blended with Cabernet and Merlot outside the rules, and some of them are now among Italy’s most expensive wines.

The Australian angle

Both grapes have found homes here, mostly through Italian-Australian families. The King Valley in Victoria, where the Pizzini family has grown both for decades, is the centre for Nebbiolo, with the Adelaide Hills close behind; the grape is fussy about site and the results range from thin to thrilling. Sangiovese is easier and more widespread: Coriole in McLaren Vale was the Australian pioneer, Greenstone in Heathcote and Pizzini in the King Valley are benchmarks, and Margaret River and Langhorne Creek are producing good examples. Australian Sangiovese tends to be riper and softer than Chianti, which makes it a friendly introduction; Australian Nebbiolo, at its best, is startlingly like the real thing. Our Nebbiolo guide and Sangiovese guide cover each grape in full.

What to buy

We have not put prices on this one; the Italian imports range from ten dollars to a thousand and the shelf changes weekly. The shape of the ladder is what matters.

Sangiovese, cheapest to dearest: a basic Chianti (look for the black rooster of Chianti Classico for a step up), an Australian Sangiovese from Pizzini, Coriole or Greenstone, a Chianti Classico Riserva, a Rosso di Montalcino (the baby Brunello, and the best value on the list), then Brunello di Montalcino. The big Chianti names to trust are Fontodi, Felsina, Castello di Ama and Isole e Olena.

Nebbiolo, cheapest to dearest: a Langhe Nebbiolo (the declassified, early-drinking version from Barolo producers, and the best introduction), an Australian Nebbiolo from Pizzini or the Adelaide Hills, a Nebbiolo d’Alba or Roero, then Barbaresco, then Barolo. Producers to trust at the entry level are G.D. Vajra, Pio Cesare, Produttori del Barbaresco and Prunotto.

Heads up: the boxes below link to Just Wines, our partner shop. If you buy through them we earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Prices were checked when this was written and move about.

Honesty corner: the partner shop had no Nebbiolo in stock when we checked. The Sangiovese side is covered:

For the Nebbiolo, BWS and Dan Murphy’s are the places to look: a Langhe Nebbiolo from the Italian shelf, or Pizzini from the King Valley.

What to eat with them

Neither is a wine to drink on its own. Sangiovese is built for tomato: pasta with ragù, pizza, a bistecca alla fiorentina, salami, pecorino, anything with rosemary and olive oil. Its acid matches the tomato and its tannin handles the meat. Nebbiolo wants richer, earthier food to soften its tannin: braised beef, osso buco, mushroom risotto, truffles above all, aged cheese, roast duck. Serve both at 16 to 18°C, decant young Barolo for two hours, and do not chill either. Our guide to wine with pasta puts Sangiovese to work.

Frequently asked questions