A Casual Approach-
In Italy, it was the rule by government, that all the wine makers are supposed to use the grapes which are grown locally in that area, e.g. Barolo and Barbaresco used the grapes grown in Piedmont like Nebbiolo, Chianti used Tuscan Grapes like Sangiovese, and Amarone used Corvina, Rondinella, Corvino & Molinara.
According to their percentage, they were given the level like the highest was D.O.C.G and the lowest was I.G.T. Super Tuscans did not follow the rules, and they instead used French Grapes and techniques, therefore they were thrown out of the category and were put in V.D.T (table wines). But winemakers wines fought with authorities and got elevation to I.G.T however since the wines were so high quality, they were called "Super Tuscans".
The Article-
Among the most admired Italian wine styles of Amarone, Barolo, Brunello and Chianti, the Super Tuscans sound the most un-Italian. And yet, they exemplify one of the top expressions of the land.
The term was coined for a group of rebellious red wines that broke the winemaking rules of the land and found their way to superstardom.
Super Tuscans are a relatively new category of fine wines. They started to emerge in the 1970s in Tuscany, the heartland of Chianti. Some of these were French Bordeaux blends (cabernet sauvignon, merlot, petit verdot, cabernet franc), and others were blends of French and Italian sangiovese grape. Occasionally, they were single varietals.
At the time, Chianti Classico was the highest qualification of Tuscany, which oddly required wines to be blends of sangiovese and indigenous white grapes. It didn’t help that Chianti in the 1970s was diluted, thin, and characterless, which spurred winemakers to experiment with new styles.
When Chiantis were aged in big Slovenian oak casks, the Super Tuscans ‒ guided by celebrated French consultants like Emile Peynaud ‒ followed Bordeaux style ageing regimes.
A lot of expert refers to them as ‘consultant made’ wines of unprecedented quality, which were "plush, richer, riper, fruitier, more luxuriant tannin wines aged in new French oak.”
The first cab off the rank was the prestigious Sassicaia from Tenuta San Guido, a pure cabernet sauvignon aged in French oak casks. Adventurous owner Marchesi Mario Incisa started experimenting with Bordeaux grapes in the Tuscan coastal town of Bolgheri in 1940s and, after many trials and errors, released the first vintage in 1968.
The now iconic wine Tignanello followed a similar timeline. Marchesi Piero Antinori of the famed Antinori family was equally inspired by Bordeaux wines and produced a blend of sangiovese and cabernet for his family. In 1971, the wine was released to the market.
Ornellaia, a pure cabernet sauvignon, soon followed, as did Antinori’s Solaia.
The wine which started this movement was the Sassicaia, one of the first Italian reds to be made in the image of Bordeaux. For Sassicaia, it all started in the 1940s when Marchesi Mario Incisa della Rocchetta moved to the Bolgheri region of Tuscany and decided that he wanted to make wines more in style of Bordeaux than with Tuscany’s reigning Sangiovese grape. So he planted the Carbernet Franc, although he didn’t intend to sell the wines. Nevertheless, they caught the attention of Rocchetta’s nephew Piero Antinori and his enologist (someone who studies wine) and advised the inclusion of Cabernet Sauvignon and the rest is history! The success of Sassicaia and Tignanello inspired many more wines made from or including international grape varieties not native to Italy, including; Tenuta dell’Ornellaia; Tua Rita; and Le Macchiole. This shows that not all Super Tuscans are made from Cabernet – Masseto and Messorio, for instance, are 100% Merlot.
While no set definition of a Super Tuscan exists till now, consumers have learnt to expect a Super Tuscan to be a French grape-led wine from Tuscany. “What they have in common is that they don’t have anything in common with the others,” Vianney Gravereaux, sales and marketing director at Ornellaia and Masseto, shared. “It became anything that was not classical Sangiovese or Tuscany.”
Despite their slick attributes, the wines – with their non- Italian grapes – sat outside of any prevalent Italian wine conventions and were declassified to the lowest quality level of ‘vino da tavola’ or table wines.
Italian wine label classification ranks wines in four tiers: DOCG is the highest level for regions like Barolo, DOC the second highest, IGT (Indicazione Geografica Tipica) sits at the third rung and Vino da Tavola is the lowest.
Undeterred by the low-quality labels, the producers audaciously priced the wines much higher than the top-quality levels of DOC. The market responded favourably to the polished tannins and the wines were an instant success.
“Everyone wanted to join in the success story, and today almost every producer (in Tuscany) will have a Super Tuscan alongside their DOC or DOCG wines.”
In time, some of the wines were elevated to DOC Bolgheri and DOC Maremma, while others were labelled as regional IGT and the category exploded.
Article by Gaurav Dixit September - 2023
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