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Central and Southern Italy

Table of Contents
  1. Tuscany (Toscana)
  2. Umbria
  3. Marches (Marche)
  4. Abruzzo
  5. Latium (Lazio)
  6. Molise
  7. Campania
  8. Apulia (Puglia)
  9. Basilicata
  10. Calabria
  11. Siciliy (Sicilia)
  12. Sardinia (Sardegna)
  13. Review Quizzes

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Tuscany (Toscana)

On the Tyrrhenian Coast of Italy, the region of Tuscany has become a byword for Italian culture. A famous artistic legacy and rich history match the natural beauty of the Tuscan countryside, unfolding in waves of golden and green hills that ebb and flow between the Apennine Mountains and the sea.



Wine is deeply embedded in Tuscany’s cultural heritage—the famous medieval Florentine poet Dante Alighieri praised the Vernaccia of San Gimignano, and legislation delimiting the Chianti zone dates to 1716. The first DOC and DOCG zones to be authorized in Italy were Tuscan. Wine and commercial agriculture are big business in Tuscany, and the hills are a patchwork of olive tree groves, vineyards, and wheat fields—a natural evolution of the “promiscuous” agriculture that ancient Romans practiced, wherein these three staple crops of Tuscany were planted side by side in the same fields. In the past, Chianti was synonymous with Italian wine—and a reminder, not unfairly, of its troubled quality. Historically bottled in a fiasco due to the inferior quality of Italian glass, the squat, straw-covered Chianti bottles came to epitomize the rustic, cheap nature of Italian wine in the late 1960s, ‘70s, and ‘80s. Tuscany’s winemakers have responded with a surge in quality over the last quarter century, slashing vineyard yields and building on the successes of the “Super-Tuscan” trailblazers Marquis Mario Rocchetta, who released the first commercial vintage of Sassicaia in 1968, and his nephew Piero Antinori, whose Tignanello bottling soon followed. While the benchmark for quality has been raised significantly, it may be at the expense of typicity—the Bordeaux grapes and model of winemaking extend great influence over the modern Tuscan
Comments

  • In regards to Vino Nobile di Montepulciano and the 3 year aging requirement for Riserva, would this mean 2 years in barrel and 1 year in bottle?

  • For some reason my own notes mention a Bolgheri Ornellaia DOC, similar to the Bolgheri Sassicaia DOC; but now I can't find anything to back up its existence.  Does anybody know anything about this?

  • Thanks for the clarifications

  • Douglas, as stated before we unfortunately have no control over these old court maps.  Conero and Verdicchio Castelli di Jesi do not overlap, but Rosso Piceno and the Castelli di Jesi do.  That is the DOC most Verdicchio producers there use for red wines.

    Montepulciano is the second most planted red grape in Italy, with 31,000 hectares, but it is fourth overall, behind Sangiovese, Trebbiano Toscano and Catarratto.

    You are correct, Rosso Piceno Superiore is south of Conero, in the Ascoli Piceno province near the border with Abruzzo.  The Rosso Piceno appellation surrounds Conero, but it does exclude Conero itself.

  • Another question, "Catarratto is ... the third most cultivated grape in Italy"  "Trebbiano Toscano, Italy’s most planted white grape..."

    If Sangiovese is 1st, Montepulciano is 2nd, Catarratto is 3rd, and Trebbiano is the most planted white varietal, shouldn't Trebbiano be either the 3rd most cultivated(meaning the most planted white) or the 2nd most planted white grape?   I guess I am asking is there a distinction between planted and cultivated and if not, which varietal is the most planted white grape. Thanks

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