A bottle of Chianti sitting in a wicker basket was once the symbol of Tuscan wines around the world, a marketing gimmick that hoped to make up for the poor quality inside the bottle. Thankfully, Tuscan wine has experienced a renaissance as wonderful as the masterpieces hanging in the galleries of Florence.
Tuscany’s rolling landscape, carpeted in olive trees and vines, and interspersed with romantic medieval towns has long attracted visitors and investors, hoping to enjoy an idyllic slice of central Italy. However, the quality of its wines had long failed to live up to the beauty of its countryside due to a quantity-over-quality ethos in the 1960s and ’70s.
But a revolution was occurring close to the Tyrrhenian shores in the early 1970s, with the first commercial release of Sassicaia, the original Super Tuscan.
Made from red Bordeaux varieties, which meant it had to be labelled as a lowly table wine, Sassicaia shook up Tuscany’s wine scene and the reverberations were felt across Italy. The likes of Ornellaia, Tignanello and Solaia emerged as part of this non-conformist group, offering world-class wines and creating renewed interest in Tuscan fine wine.
But it is the indigenous variety, Sangiovese, that forms the backbone of Chianti, Chianti Classico and Brunello di Montalcino. Improved clonal material, vineyard management and modern winemaking techniques have put this region back on the radar of the world’s fine wine lovers.
