It is a wine with great longevity. It is not produced infrequently. In fact, you can find bottles aged for periods ranging from 10 to 30 years and longer. It has long passed the concept of perfect pairings by acquiring an international status that makes it suitable with any dish from any cuisine, thanks also to its fine and elegant style. In the other municipalities of the valley (Buonconvento, Castiglione d'Orcia, Pienza, Radicofani, San Quirico d'Orcia, Trequanda) and in portions of neighbouring municipalities (Abbadia San Salvatore, Chianciano Terme, San Casciano dei Bagni, Sarteano, Torrita di Siena), the Sangiovese grapes are the undisputed protagonists of a rather young DOC (created in 2000), the Orcia, so called as to establish an indissoluble link with the territory.
On its own or together with other grape varieties such as the Canaiolo Nero, Colorino, Ciliegiolo, Foglia Tonda, Pugnitello and Malvasia Ner, the Sangiovese gives life to wines that, for their linearity and immediacy, assume a distinctive stylistic feature that’s excellent with the cheese and cold cuts mentioned above and with the most characteristic dishes of the area. Like the pansanto, a bread served with boiled cauliflower, vinegar and oil that can be eaten as an appetizer to the famous pici, here served, above all, with a meat sauce or with stale breadcrumbs; or to bread soup, a poor man’s dish that used leftover bread by soaking and warming it in a bean and vegetable broth, a symbol of many other Tuscan peasant cuisines, where it is sometimes called ribollita.
