Petrolo, Val d’Arno di Sopra (Tuscany, Italy) Sangiovese 2019

 How much attention should we pay to a winery’s credo and how much to the wine?  First consider this intro to Petrolo’s raison de raisin as stated on its website: “We at Petrolo, vine-growers in the Vald’Arno di Sopra, disciples of Nepo da Galatrona, by tradition, culture and education Heraclitian, Dyonysian-Epicurean-Lucretian, Hermetic-Fician, Leonardesque neo-Platonic and Giorgionesque neo-Aristotelian, romantics and revolutionaries, we believe that God is in all things, and that the earth itself is God; and that everything is fertile, vital, wet, crackling, lush.  And that man is joined to heaven by means of his divine element and is in all things and all places occupying the core of the ramified and highly complex configuration of animal and vegetable beings: the heart of that infinite affinity of all things which is the Universe-World.”  Now consider the wine:  More of a food wine than a sipper, it is delicious, with a tangy, cherry fruitiness that is crisp on the palate with a touch of savory tannins in the finish.  It is almost like a cross between raspy Sangiovese and succulent Merlot, the latter for which the estate is known – “Galatrona.”  Suckling is a huge fan.  Do I hear an “Amen?”