Volpetto Sangiovese di Toscana 2011 (£5.99 Ocado)
Reasonable plum and cherry flavours, but it’s a bit volatile and overall just too rustic. C(-)

Volpetto Chianti 2011, Tuscany (£7.99 Hercules Wines, Cambridge Wine Merchants, Sandhams Wine Merchant, Last Drop Wines, Addison Wines, SH Jones, Temple Wines)
Still some of the rusty/rustic notes, plus the volatility, but this is riper and rounder, with more of the plummy dark cherry flavour, and a touch of spice too. C+

Volpetto Chianti Riserva 2009, Tuscany (£8.99-9.49 Hercules Wines, Last Drop Wines, Addison Wines, SH Jones, Temple Wines)
Again some rusticity, but this has decent cherry, plum and cola flavours, a touch of spice, and enough tangy acidity to hold it all together. B(-)

Avignonesi Vino Nobile di Montepulciano 2010, Tuscany (£23.99 Amordivino, Butlers Wine Cellar, Champion Wines, D Byrne, Eton Vintners, The Good Wine Shop, Grapebox, Harrods, Haslemere Cellar, Hedonism, Imbibros, Laytons, Mill Hill Wines, Olivino, Reid Wines, Revelstoke Wine, V&S Vino, Soho Wine Supply, Vini Italiani)
Confident, grown-up style, combining the classic chewy cherry edge of Sangiovese with extra blackcurrant and damson flavours. There’s also a savoury, earthy character, aromas of vanilla and grilled meat and just the right amount of chewy tannin. Iron fist in velvet glove stuff, very impressive. S+

Comelli Pignolo 2009, Friuli (N/A in the UK)
It seems like there’s reasonable plummy loganberry and mulberry fruit here, but it’s very hard to get to it under the overlay of tannic smoky oak. I gave this three days to see if the wood would soften, but it didn’t seem to… ???