TUSCANY

Tuscany and its wines are as familiar to English-speaking folk as they are to the Tuscans themselves. Waves of British, American and Australian tourists have made of Tuscany a second home (… and kitchen … and movie set), especially in summer and autumn, prowling the small hilltop towns and wending their way along the winding Tuscan roads. (Tuscany is 70 percent hills.) 

Of all Tuscan wines, these visitors favor—either when in Tuscany or back home—the very symbol of all Italian wine, Chianti. 

They remember Chianti when it was bottled in their favorite candle holder, a straw-clad fiasco, just like at Tony’s Ristorante in Lady and The Tramp. But they know that Chianti has changed, way for the better, and is richer, redder and riper than it ever has been (though, alas, rarely bottled as of yore).  

Chianti changed because Tuscany changed. Sixty years ago, Tuscany was a nearly feudal agglomeration of farms and the hilltop towns that ruled them. That schema closed up shop with a winemaking risorgimento that took hold in the 1960s. As Tuscany made better and better wines that appealed to the world market, it looked away from itself, and thus became a different place. 

Chianti Classico
So much has changed for the better in Chianti since Lady and The Tramp. One development has been the delineation of seven Chianti zones, one of which is the Classico (“classic” or “historic”) district, from which many feel come Chianti’s richest and ripest reds. 

Of the remaining six zones, wines from Chianti Rufina (ROO-fee-nah) are especially engaging and perfumed. 

While Chianti Classico used to allow white grapes into the typical blend, better (read: all) producers now use only red: 75-100 percent Sangiovese, and the rest other red grapes, often Cabernet Sauvignon. (The law forbids any white grapes for Classico Riserva.) 

Tuscany’s other principal reds after Chianti are Brunello di Montalcino, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, and Carmignano. But first, a word about the grape that is at the heart of all four, Sangiovese (from the Latin, sanguis jovis, “the blood of Jove (Zeus)”). 

Sangiovese
Sangiovese is the principal red wine grape of Tuscany. While it mutates easily—the names of three clones alone are the Sangioveto for Chianti; Prugnolo Gentile for Vino Nobile; and the Brunello for Brunello di Montalcino—Sangiovese, when well-made, delivers a wine that has refined aromas and tastes of bitter cherries, chocolate, cedar wood, earth, spice and leather; acidity that is marked and zesty; and tannins that are at once supple but taut.  

Given the hundreds of Tuscan microclimates, a function of Tuscany’s rolling hills and various soils, these and other clones of Sangiovese make for many different styles of red Tuscan wine. 

Brunello di Montalcino
Brunello’s only rival in Italy for most expensive, longest-lived and top red wine is Barolo, from Piedmont. Brunello is a legendary wine, from a legendary place, Montalcino, a comely hilltop town south of Siena. Previously the purview of a handful of small estates, the wine now also is made by larger concerns.  

It is always powerful and multi-layered, whether made in the old style (elegant and refined) or the new (thick and rich in fruit). Aging rules have been lowered from four years in wood to three. Estates very often produce a “baby Brunello,” Rosso di Montalcino, from their younger Sangiovese vines or wines aged far less time in wood. 

Vino Nobile di Montepulciano
The name refers not so much to a wine that is “nobile,” but to the noble and papal gentry who used to consume it. Winemakers blend the Prugnolo Gentile clone of Sangiovese with Canaiolo (for softness) and Mammolo (for aroma). It peaks somewhat later than Chianti, but earlier than Brunello.

Carmignano
Miniscule in production compared to any of the wines above, Carmignano nonetheless has a unique claim to fame (and delectability): Cabernet Sauvignon, grown here since the 18th century. Indeed, when aged properly, Carmignano from a good year tastes remarkably like well-bred Médoc.  

Sangiovese must make up a minimum 50 percent of any blend, with Cabernet Sauvignon or Franc allowed up to 20 percent (other red grapes also apply). 

Vernaccia di San Gimignano
This is Tuscany’s most renowned white wine and is made from the grape of the same name, sometimes oaked, most often not. Medium-bodied, silken, with a touch of bitter almond in its finish. 

Tuscan foods
Tuscany is a locale known nearly as much for its foods and its wines, from gold-flecked green olive oils, to sharp pecorino cheeses, well-salted sausages, enormous t-bone bistecca fiorentina, and recipes for vegetables and beans of every stripe. 

Its wines, especially the reds, marry well with such hearty, autumn- and winter-based fare.