This modern red wine blend tastes of Sonoma and Tuscany

If you were to survey Philadelphia wine lovers on which region makes their favorite wines, the top two results would almost certainly be California and Italy, two regions whose wines could not taste more different in style. California’s wines tend to be modern: rich and dense, ripe and fruity, and often loaded with oaky flavors that can impart a dessert-like spiced vanilla scent.

Italy’s wines are almost always more traditional: lighter in weight and leaner, too, meaning drier and more acidic, with an earthy, herbal complexity that more closely resembles savory main courses. One key factor causing this distinction is the marked difference in climate between these regions, with California’s vineyards being considerably warmer and drier than most of those found in Italy. However, there is another factor at work, too; cultural priorities that aim for opposing traits. For centuries, Europe’s wines were designed around traditional goals like flattering local cuisine and resisting spoilage without refrigeration. Wine was introduced to other continents much later on, so their wines are shaped by a spirit of innovation that is more reliant on technology and aims to please a global audience on the first sip without considering food context.

That’s what makes wines like this one — an uncommon “Cal-Ital” red blend based on the Sangiovese grape — so very interesting.

For over 25 years, this Sonoma winery has blended this wine as an homage to the traditional Tuscan red wines grown near the city of Siena. Chianti fans may notice a family resemblance in the wine’s cherry-centric fruit flavors and thread of rhubarb-like tang, both hallmarks of Sangiovese. But there’s no disguising the wine’s California origins or all-American sensibilities, which yield a wine with more palate weight and plumper fruit, not to mention a lingering suggestion of cherry-cola sweetness that is decidedly modern.

$19.99; 14.5% alcohol

PLCB Item # 98127

Sale price through June 27, regularly $24.99

Also available at these New Jersey stores: