When one comes across a “foreign” wine in a French hypermarket, there is often a French connection. Here it was Bernard Magrez, best known for Château Pape-Clément, who has a quite extensive wine empire. His Bordeaux are not my favourites (too much oak) but his “foreign” wines are, in my experience, usually well made apart from a recent bottle of badly evolved Priorat 2007. This Chianti had a remarkably friendly price for Magrez at <€10.
2023 Bernard Magrez Chianti Imani - Italy, Tuscany, Chianti (05/06/2025)
This Chianti, made from Sangiovese 90% together with Malvasia Nera and Canaiolo, is well made and enjoyable. Medium+ bodied showing fresh red and dark berry fruit with decent acid balance, grip and an underlying roundness which made me wrongly guess Merlot in the blend. Not shouting Chianti in character but good.
Sangiovese is also found in France, particularly in Corsica under its local name Niellucciu. On this big island, it gives some fine wines, which I find quite different from Tuscan renditions in that they rarely have the same food friendly acidic tang of the most characterful from Chianti, Montalcino or Montepulciano. This Patrimonio was a blend of 90% Niellucciu and 10% Grenache.
2020 Domaine d'E Croce (Yves Leccia) Patrimonio E Croce - France, Corsica, Patrimonio (06/08/2023)
Though Patrimonio's principal grape, Niellucciu, is said to be the same as Sangiovese, this 2020 from Y. Leccia is even less like any Tuscan example of this grape than my previous from this appellation. Colour was quite light and body was medium at most but the wine was linear in shape, quite long and showed a lot of elegance. There was fine berry fruit, especially cherry and strawberry, a touch of Darjeeling tea, delicate fine minerals and fresh acidity leading to an attractive but light taste towards the finish which I can't recall in any Tuscan wines. It was nutty in the manner of fruit stones. I can't say whether this was due to élevage or to the grapes themselves. I would like to know how well Patrimonio ages. This one was very good close to its 3rd anniversary.
This one is from mainland France.
2022 Jeff Carrel Vin de France Sangiovese Cuvée à l'Italienne - France, Vin de France (15/08/2024)
Sangiovese from mainland France is a curiosity. The only clues to more precise geographic origin on the label are the addresses of the producer and bottler which are in the Aude and Pyrénées-Orientales counties. I rate this a success. Colour and body are both lighter than found in the grape's Tuscan homeland but the bright fruit, lively minerals together with tangy acidity and decent length are there making it a good pairing for pasta dishes and tomato sauce. Good.
Posted from CellarTracker
PS: Apologies to Corsican nationalists who may be upset by my referring to Patrimonio as “French”.