Champagne & Wine

Champagne & Wine

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  • Elizabeth Riadi
    Elizabeth Riadi    Group moderator
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    Super Tuscans: An Italian Winemaking Revolution
    Super Tuscans: An Italian Winemaking Revolution

    For many years, much of Italian winemaking was more about quantity than quality. As in the South of France, large quantities of mediocre table wine were produced by big négociant firms, or by farmers who grew winegrapes along with other crops and had no particular winemaking skill. By the 1970's, even in the best fine wine-producing DOCG appellations (Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita) like Brunello di Montalcino in Tuscany or Barolo in the Piemont, winemaking creativity had been thwarted by overly strict regulations, and the wines produced no longer interested most of the winebuying public.

    A small revolution happened in Tuscany in 1970 that changed the course of Italian winemaking. It was in that year that the marquis Mario Incisa della Rocchetta, at his estate Tenuta San Guido, first introduced to the international market a wine he had been making for private consumption since the late '40s: the now world-famous Sassacaia. Incisa della Rocchetta was the first to make a Tuscan wine using a majority of the French grape variety Cabernet Sauvignon in the blend, and to age it in French oak barrels (a technique unheard of in Tuscany at the time). By the mid-70's, Sassacaia had won international acclaim, and several visionary négociants and winemakers, most notably Antinori, saw in this success a way to break out of the inertia of the strict rules of the DOC system and bring Italian wines back into the quality wine market. The concept of the "Super Tuscan" (thus named by American wine critics for the astronomic prices they achieved) was born. The regulatory commission that oversees the DOC system prohibits the use of non-Italian grape varieties, and promptly categorized Sassacaia and the other Super Tuscans as Vino di Tavola (Table Wine), the lowest level on the Italian quality scale. But this disapproval did not stop Antinori from making Tignanello and Solaia, or Tenuta dell' Ornellaia from making Ornellaia and Ornellaia Massetto, wines that now fetch hefty prices. These wines blend the traditional Sangiovese grape of the Tuscany region with Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot, and are produced in the rich, full-bodied "international" style using modern techniques made popular by famous enologists like Bordeaux's Michel Rolland.

    The popularity and success of the Super Tuscans forced the Italian government to drop the Table Wine designation and create a new category that would encompass these wines. A new denomination called Indicazione Geografica Tipica (IGT) gives more freedom to these winemakers for experimentation and blending with non-traditional grape varieties. The new DOC of Bolgheri in the beautiful coastal Maremma area was also created to recognize the terroir of some of the greatest Super Tuscan wines. Most importantly, the advent of the Super Tuscans has brought new life to the traditional DOC's and DOCG's of Tuscany, where winemakers adopted more modern vinification and marketing methods and regained their rightful place in the international marketplace.
    • 28 Jan 2005, 7:24 pm