Italian Wine

Italian Wine and the Romans

Italy's winemaking dates back more than 3,000 years. To map out the history from beginning to now might be a bit much, but here are a few interesting details.

To begin, there have been archeological expeditions that have found grape pips and wine sediment in Sardinia thought to date back to 1200 B.C.

In the 1st millennium B.C. new grape varieties and methods of viticulture were introduced to Sicily, Puglia and Campania by the Greeks, and the Etruscans introduced these varieties and viticulture to Tuscany.

The fall of Rome may have ended the golden age of wine but those who were already involved in wine making did not abandon viticulture. They struggled for centuries until the 1891 unification of Italy.

Chianti Wine "Fiasco"

From post WW II and going into 1960's much of the Chianti wine produced was rustic and relatively inexpensive. The DOC laws at that time allowed the use of white grapes (trebbiano and malvasia) to be added to the traditional red sangiovese and canaiolo (although the canaiolo is no longer a compulsory grape).

This blending of white and red grapes made the Chianti an easy drinking wine and a commercial success though they were not premium wines of quality. Many of us bought this wine only to use the empty bottle as candle holders rather than for the wine itself.

Unhappy with the decline in the quality of the Chianti and what was happening with the wine industry at that time, there were some Tuscan wine producers who wanted to "experiment" so to speak to make a richer wine . They were adding small amounts of cabernet sauvignon and merlot to the sangiovese and leaving out the required white trebbiano and malvasia grapes to the blend.

Radical Wine-Makers

In the 1940's, Marchese Mario Incisa della Rocchetta made wine on his estate, Tenuta San Guido, near the coast of Bolgheri. Not being a prime wine-growing region, della Rocchetta had Cabernet Sauvignon vines imported from Chateau Lafite in Bordeaux, planted them on his estate and named the vineyard Sassicaia.

His non-traditional process for making Tuscan wine included aging his blend of 85 percent Cabernet Sauvignon and 15 percent Cabernet Franc in French barriques. Those first wines della Roccheta produced, which he named Sassicaia after the vineyard where the grapes were planted, were not quite premium wines, but over time della Rocchetta refined his wine-making and produced very impressive premium wines.

In the 1960's Piero Antinori, a relative of della Rocchetta, and a member of a centuries old winemaking family in Tuscany, tasted the wine and persuaded della Rocchetta to market the wine. The 1968 vintage was finally put on the commercial market and was an immediate success. It was said to be as good as any of the best wines of Bordeaux.

In 1994 Italy designated Sassicaia its own DOC -- Bolgheri, Sassicaia.

Tignanello - A New Breed of Italian Wine

In the 1970's Piero Antinori, somewhat inspired by della Rocchetta's Sassicaia, was intent on making a better wine that would be dictated by good winemaking rather than tradition. He wanted to make a richer Chianti wine that would be more appealing to the international market.

At that time, the DOC laws did not permit using 100% Sangiovese grapes in Chianti wine. However, Antinori was convinced that would make a better wine. Then in 1971 Antinori decided to add 20 percent cabernet sauvignon and cabernet franc, and aged the wine in French oak barriques. Now Antinori's Chianti was no longer a DOC wine and he could no longer call the wine Chianti or Chianti Classico Reserva vigneto Tignanello. So he called the wine simply Tignanello.

Tignanello was considered the first Super Tuscan. The wine became a commercial and artistic success. Today, Tignanello is still one of Italy's greatest wines.

Ornellaia

Piero Antinori's younger brother, Ludovico, also created a new Tuscan wine in the 1970's. He too used a blend that was not the traditional Chianti varieties. Ludovico used the Bordeaux varietals of cabernet sauvignon and merlot. Sometime in mid-1980's Antinori produced his non-traditional Tuscan wine called Ornellaia. This has been said to be comparable to the Sassicaia.

Ludovico Antinori's estate, the Tenuta dell'Ornellaia, was bought by the Robert Mondavi corporation in 2002.

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