Tasting in Tuscany
By: Leah Larkin
Everyone knows Chianti, Tuscany's famous red wine that was once bottled in straw-covered flasks. However, there's much more to Tuscan wine as my husband and I discovered on a recent trip.
With its vine covered hills, silvery olive groves and ancient Renaissance towns, Tuscany is an ideal place to combine sightseeing and wine tasting. A fun place to taste is Le Cantine di Greve in the town of Chianti.
Tasting stands are set up in a spacious, well-lit cellar at the Cantine where more than 100 Tuscan wines can be tasted. You buy cards for 10, 15, 20 or 25 euros , get a glass, wander around checking out all the wines, then insert the card next to a spigot dispensing the wine you want to try. Individual tastes cost from 40 cents to 5 euros, depending on the cost of the wine per bottle.
My husband and I splurged on a 5 euro tasting of a 2001 Solaia Antinori whose price tag was 104 euros.
Mostly we were content with more affordable wines, although we did try a pricey Brunello di Montalcino and a Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, both prestige wines of the region. We compared notes with fellow tasters who recommended their favourites.
Wine has been part of the Tuscan civilization for some 3,000 years. The region is noted for red wines made primarily from the sangiovese grape which brings firm, robust flavors and milder red berry aromas to the wine. The major wines of the region are the aforementioned reds: Brunello, Chianti and Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, as well as Carmignano. However, one white wine merits recognition: Vernaccia de San Gimignano.
Following Piedmont, Tuscany is Italy's most famous wine region with more than 157,000 acres of vineyards producing 57 million gallons of wine. Most of that wine is consumed by Italians who drink 26 gallons per person annually.
In 1963 Italy established wine laws for its most important districts. Similar to the Appellation Contrôlée laws in France, the Italian laws are known as Denominazione di Origine Controllata
or DOC. They specify the geographical limits of each appellation, the grape varieties that may be used, the maximum amount of wine that can be produced per acre and the minimum alcohol content of the wine. In 1980 an even higher and more select category of wines was created, Denominazione di Origine Controllata Garantita or DOCG. These laws reduce maximum production per acre and specify that every wine must be approved by a tasting commission before it can carry the DOCG seal.
Chianti, which years ago was known as a table wine bottled in those straw-covered flasks, has moved up the ladder in quality. Today all wines labeled Chianti are DOCG wines. That quaint bottle, the fiasco, is now hard to find due to the high labour costs of hand wrapping each flask. And, the better Chiantis produced today are best if aged and laid on their sides.
Chianti is divided into two appellations, Chianti Classico and Chianti, both designating the area where the vineyards grow. Chianti Classico is produced in central Tuscany in the hills between Sienna and Florence, while Chianti comes from a large area surrounding the Classico territory. Some Chianti Classico wines have a black rooster on their label which is a seal of guarantee from vintners belonging to a consortium whose purpose is to promote the area's quality wine. Chiantis with the word "riserva" on the label are superior wines that have been aged for at least three years.
Chianti production code requires a minimum of 75 percent of the sangiovese grape; for Chianti Classico, 80 percent. In the past, grapes used mainly for white wines, trebbiano and malvasia, were blended in Chianti production. This practice has largely been abandoned. Today, in addition to the canaiolo grape, cabernet sauvignon and merlot grapes are blended with sangiovese to produce Chianti. Depending on where the grapes are grown and the vintage, Chianti ranges from a light, fruity wine to a full bodied, dry acidic wine that will age for 10 years or more.
At the Podere Terreno, an agriturismo or bed-and-breakfast home near Radda in Chianti, we tasted some fine Chiantis, including a 2000 riserva, with proprietor Roberto Melosi who has 10 acres of vineyards. "You only make riserva when you have a very, very good year," he said. 2000 was one of those years, but 2001 was even better. But, no matter how good, Chianti should not be kept longer than 15 years, he added.
Melosi, a red wine aficionado, touted the health benefits of drinking red wine as opposed to white "Doctors recommend a glass of red wine for cardiac problems, not white wine," he said. "A white wine is like a lady that needs to be dressed up. She needs a lot of makeup."
Nonetheless, Tuscany's white wine, Vernaccia di San Gimignano, a refreshing wine with notes of citrus, has its fans. The town, San Gimignano with its skyline of ancient towers, is a pleasant place for a walk around its walls followed by a glass of its famous wine at an outdoor café.
Other delightful places to visit - and taste - are the red wine towns of Montepulciano and Montalcino, both classic Tuscan hill towns with charming piazzas. Enoteca (wine shops) abound where you can taste.
Brunello di Montalcino is made with a clone of the sangiovese grape, called brunello or sangiovese grosso. It is one of Italy's most expensive wines, a DOCG wine comparable to the great Bordeaux of France. Rosso de Montalcino is more affordable.
To taste a 1999 Brunello which sold for 49,30 euros a bottle at the Cantine in Greve, we paid 3 euros. It was heaven in a bottle. "That's why it's so expensive," said Marco Baldini, a salesman at the Cantine. He gave us a tip as he uncorked a bottle. "A cork that smells like cork is bad," he said. "It must smell like wine."
Another noted Tuscan wine is Vino Nobile di Montepulciano. It is also a sangiovese based wine, however it is not named after the village Montepulciano, but rather the grape by the same name which is blended with the sangiovese. Abruzzo, a region southeast of Tuscany, produces a less expensive wine, Montelpulciano d'Abruzzo.
Vino Nobile de Montepulciano, a DOCG wine, is stored in large oak barrels according to traditional custom for a minimum of two years, or three for the riserva. In the town at the Consorzio del Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, Piazza Grande 7, there is an enoteca for tasting and buying where the wine starts at about 12 euros a bottle.
Some years ago a new category of Tuscan wines emerged: "Super Tuscans." Back in the 1960s a group of young Chianti producers decided to buck tradition and to ignore the standard recipe for the wine by blending different grapes in different proportions not authorized by DOC laws. One of the first of these wines was a Sassicaia produced in 1968 that is 85 percent cabernet sauvignon and 15 percent cabernet franc. More followed and the wines were deemed "fabulous." But, they weren't Chianti and they could not be listed as DOC or DOCG wines. They had to be called vino da tavola or table wine, putting them in the same category as Italy's cheapest wines.
After tasting one of the new wines, an English journalist dubbed them "Super Tuscans." Today these wines can cost as much as 300 euros per bottle. As it is not an official category, there are no strict rules but most are a blend of sangiovese and French Bordeaux grapes.
Our Cantine tasting did not include a Super Tuscan, but we did manage to sample 11 different wines. Of course, we bought a few of our favorites.
