£8, Tesco
It would take a lot to persuade me that it was worth spending as little as £8 on a bottle of Chianti – which you can do in supermarkets – but if and when I want an easygoing, inexpensive Italian red wine that doesn’t taste thin and scrawny or of vanilla-scented American oak or of cloying residual sugar, I’ll go for Remastered.
It comes from Romagna, a DOC in the southeast corner of Emilia-Romagna, and is made from Sangiovese, the grape variety of Chianti and a great many other Italian reds, and it tastes Italian, by which I mean it’s got a little bit of grip in the form of both acidity and tannin – not much but enough to give it that food-friendly Italian twist.
It's unoaked juicy and rounded with a combination of sweet red cherry and sour Morello cherry fruit interleaved with a pinch of spicy clove and tobacco leaf. Nothing fancy, just an enjoyable dry red – and it's better than the Remastered white wine, a perfectly sound but slightly characterless Fiano.
You could drink the Sangiovese without food or with just a few token canapés, which makes it a good party wine, but it comes into its own with all the usual Italian suspects (pizza, lasagna, spaghetti and pesto, spag bol) and, because it’s juicy-fresh and the tannins are light, it also goes with lots of vegetables, although give a wide berth to asparagus and globe artichokes. 13%. Empty bottle weight: 426g
Remastered Sangiovese 2022, Romagna, Italy
£8, Tesco