Santa & D’Sas …ish Dolcetto 2018

Dolcetto is an Italian grape variety that comes from Piedmont, the same part of Italy as the famed nebbiolo. It’s translation to ‘little sweet one’ can sit in contrast to a very dry nebbiolo with naturally high levels of tannin. But there’s no denying that in the right hands it makes exceptional food friendly wine.

Santa and D’Sas are the right hands. Those hands belong to Andrew Santarossa and Matthew Di Sciascio who established the label in 2013 after meeting during their wine studies.

There’s a lot going on here – ripe cherries, tender rhubarb and pink musk sticks plucked from the jar in a 1980s corner store. But it’s definitely not just ‘a little sweet one’. Savoury characters hint at delicious pairings – roast tomatoes, dried Italian herbs, a hint of spicy salami. It shows varietal slightly grippy tannins but they are well handled. 

Drink with a big wedge of crisp wood fired pizza, eaten with your hands.