Super Tuscans
March, 2013 Filed in: Wine varieties
Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive! Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound! Look, up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's Super Tuscan! Huh!
What are Super Tuscans? Well, back in the 80’s, see something good came out of the 80’s, several Italian winemakers found themselves in hot water. These guys were producing some outstanding wines, but not using traditional Italian varietals, well at least in pure form. The Italian authorities would not allow the marketing of Italian wines unless they were authorized varieties and sanctioned methods. Chianti, which has Sangiovese as the main grape variety, but also can be a bland with other traditional Italian grape varieties. But heaven forbid if you blended it with non-Italian varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon. Heresy!
So these renegade winemakers starting blending Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and a traditional Italian variety Sangiovese, and sometimes others. These renegades felt they could make a better wine than those wines that had to be made within the Italian regulations. At the same time, the chief Italian red wine Chianti was the joke of the world’s wine. It had become bland table wine often found in cheap wicker baskets. This has since changed and perhaps these renegades were partially responsible to waking the Italian wine industry up.
Because these hooligans were doing this in bold defiance of Italian regulators the wines were branded as Super Tuscans. In the 1990’s the Italian authorities capitulated and allowed the designation Super Tuscans to hold.
Super Tuscans are big, bold, dark beautiful wines, velvety smooth with great structure and decent tannins. Super T’s pair well with any red meat, meat or mushroom based lasagna, or pepperoni or mushroom pizza. Commercial Super Tuscans start around $30, are commonly priced at $80 and can fetch up to $250.
In March, we will be offering the Limited Edition Vineco Sangiovese Cabernet Sauvignon. This wine will provide wonderful ripe blackberry fruit tastes, deep colour and firm tannins. We also offer the Cellar Craft Rosso Fortissimo and Vineco Founders Series Super Tuscan as regular product offerings.
What are Super Tuscans? Well, back in the 80’s, see something good came out of the 80’s, several Italian winemakers found themselves in hot water. These guys were producing some outstanding wines, but not using traditional Italian varietals, well at least in pure form. The Italian authorities would not allow the marketing of Italian wines unless they were authorized varieties and sanctioned methods. Chianti, which has Sangiovese as the main grape variety, but also can be a bland with other traditional Italian grape varieties. But heaven forbid if you blended it with non-Italian varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon. Heresy!
So these renegade winemakers starting blending Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and a traditional Italian variety Sangiovese, and sometimes others. These renegades felt they could make a better wine than those wines that had to be made within the Italian regulations. At the same time, the chief Italian red wine Chianti was the joke of the world’s wine. It had become bland table wine often found in cheap wicker baskets. This has since changed and perhaps these renegades were partially responsible to waking the Italian wine industry up.
Because these hooligans were doing this in bold defiance of Italian regulators the wines were branded as Super Tuscans. In the 1990’s the Italian authorities capitulated and allowed the designation Super Tuscans to hold.
Super Tuscans are big, bold, dark beautiful wines, velvety smooth with great structure and decent tannins. Super T’s pair well with any red meat, meat or mushroom based lasagna, or pepperoni or mushroom pizza. Commercial Super Tuscans start around $30, are commonly priced at $80 and can fetch up to $250.
In March, we will be offering the Limited Edition Vineco Sangiovese Cabernet Sauvignon. This wine will provide wonderful ripe blackberry fruit tastes, deep colour and firm tannins. We also offer the Cellar Craft Rosso Fortissimo and Vineco Founders Series Super Tuscan as regular product offerings.