Great Wine Made Simple - Andrea Immer [80]
Rosso di Montalcino DOC is “baby Brunello” (like Rosso di Montepulciano is a “baby” Vino Nobile), a good wine to drink while you are waiting for the real thing to age in the cellar. Good producers of both Brunello and Rosso di Montalcino include Altesino (All-teh-ZEE-no), Costanti (Coh-STAN-tee), Castelgiocondo (Cass-tell-joe-COHN-doe), Il Poggione (eel Poh-jee-OH-neh), Lisini (Lee-SEE-nee), Val di Suga (Val dee SOO-guh), Col d’Orcia (Cole DOOR-chuh), Barbi (BAHR-bee), Caparzo (Cuh-PART-so), and Poggio Antico (POH-joe Ahn-TEE-coh). Castello Banfi (BAHN-fee) makes an excellent Brunello.
New on the Tuscan Horizon
BOLGHERI DOC (BOHL-gare-ee) This region on the western coast of Tuscany became famous for Cabernet Sauvignon-based super-Tuscan wines like Sassicaia, Ornellaia (ORE-nuh-LYE-uh), and others, all of which are expensive, collector wines. Watch for more from this region, including Tuscany’s up-and-coming white grape, Vermentino.
VARIETAL SANGIOVESE With prices of even the most basic Chiantis pushing fourteen dollars and up, Italian wineries have launched a category of soft and simple Sangiovese to compete in the ten-dollar and under price range. I am not too excited about the trend, because I think it mostly provides an excuse to raise the basic Chianti prices without necessarily boosting quality. But there are a couple of good ones, including Antinori’s Santa Cristina, Capezzana’s Conti Contini (COHN-tee Cohn-TEE-nee), and Ruffino’s Fonte al Sole (FOHN-teh all SOH-leh).
WINE TASTING
Tuscan Red Wines
This is a really fun and eye-opening tasting, because it compares several variations on a common theme, the Sangiovese grape, and shows you how each variation affects the end result. One of the variations on the theme is quality level. We compare a basic Chianti, a Chianti Classico Riserva, and a Brunello di Montalcino. The quality comparison encompasses several aspects of the wine. First, there is vineyard quality—comparing Chianti, whose grapes can come from anywhere in the zone, to the hilly Classico zone, the center part that is considered to have the best soil for grape growing, to a wine from the even more exclusive Montalcino zone. Second, there is grape quality, comparing the fruit quality of basic Chianti to a Riserva (for which most wineries use their very best lots of grapes), to a Brunello, made from a superior strain of Sangiovese grapes. Then we’ll consider oak and bottle aging, with basic Chianti aged the least amount of time, Chianti Classico Riserva aged longer, and Brunello the longest. You already know that oak aging affects the aroma, flavor, and body of a wine, so you know to expect increasing intensity as you go up the scale. Finally, I have included one of the “new-wave” Tuscan Sangioveses with Cabernet Sauvignon blended in, so you’ll know what this tastes like.
Before we begin, let me give you a practical suggestion for this tasting. Italian wines are really made for food, and tasting them without it can be difficult and can shortchange your appreciation of the wines. I recommend that you try the wines in sequence so that your palate can taste their styles undistracted. But then go back and try them with either some aged cheese (Tuscan Pecorino, Parmigiano Reggiano, or Spanish Manchego are the best) or crusty bread dipped in high-quality olive oil. You will be amazed at the difference. Come to think of it, you may just want to have dinner ready at that point, because once you see how great these wines are with food, you’ll be hungry.
For this tasting, refer to the appellation sections above for wine suggestions. (See Chapter 9 for meal suggestions.) Here are some suggestions for the “new-wave” Tuscans (blends of Sangiovese and Cabernet Sauvignon), all with proprietary names:
White Wine in Tuscany
Vernaccia di San Gimignano, now a DOCG, is named for the grape (Veraccia) plus the place (the hilltop town of San Gimignano, with its many