Hit Me Baby One More Wine

I will not tell you which household member (there are 6) came up with this name, but we feel it is a classic. Hit Me Baby One More Wine is an Italian Sangiovese, which I don’t recall ever tasting before, so this is a new one for me.

First let's start with how the heck do you pronounce the S word? It is pronounced san-joe-vei-zay. Did you say it correctly when you were reading it the first time? I did not.

We picked this wine because we were unfamiliar with the variety of grape. With grapes grown mostly in Italy, Sangiovese is a thin-skinned grape that ripens slowly, allowing them to develop remarkable aromas. Sangiovese is a medium-bodied wine, with high to medium tannins, and it’s on the high end of the scale when it comes to alcohol. It is comparable to a Merlot, and is frequently used in blends, like Chianti.

We began primary fermentation in late February, and it took just over two weeks to be ready to move to the next stage. We did a taste at day 12 and the wine had not degassed enough. It was very “bubbly”, and quite sweet still! Once we had the wine where we needed it, we racked it with oak tea, to allow a slow infusion of oxygen into the wine to benefit the aging process. Let’s just say, there was still a fair amount of gas within the Sangiovese, and someone needed to complete a quick clean up! Sadly, some wine was lost in the process.

Hit Me Baby One More Wine will be ready for additional racking mid-April so watch for updates.