When you think of Tuscany and its fine wines-Chianti Classico, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano and Brunello di Montalcino come to your mind-especially if you have ever attended their anteprima events held every year in Florence, Montepulciano and Montalcino. Anteprima is different than the En Primeur where the wines are tasted from the barrel barely a few months after the harvest by the buyers, journalists, experts, sommeliers and other stakeholders with the hope that the prices would be higher when the wine is ready to deliver.
Anteprima on the other hand is showcasing the ready product as has been introduced in the market. Thus the En Primeur in March-April 2015 for a week would imply tasting the 2014 vintage wines whereas Chianti Classico Anteprima would imply tasting the 2013 vintage. Vino Nobile di Montepulciano would be ready for tasting 2012 at the Anteprima on February 19. Brunello di Montalcino is allowed to be released only in the 5th year after harvest, i.e., 2010 may be released on January 1, 2015 only. Rosso di Montalcino, sometimes referred to as Baby Brunello would be 2013 for the Anteprima.
Besides showcasing the wines ready to come into the market, once may have additional opportunity of tasting the previous vintage, i.e., 2014 during all the Anteprime of 2015. Most producers shy away from showcasing the vintage-not publicly anyway since they are afraid the taster may not be able to interpret the vintage and at times the final wine may be different in terms of quality and personality. Besides, Tuscan wines-barring generally a few high-end Brunello would not be purchased by the collectors (a few Super Tuscans are also a part of this category).
In the past, the Consortiums of these three wine producing regions making high quality Sangiovese-based wines (Montalcino allows only 100% Sangiovese while Chianti Classico must use 85% of the grape with Montepulciano settling for 70% by the appellation laws; all the wines being docg, the highest category of quality in the hierarchy) used to get together and organise a joint program lasting 5 days.
In the recent years Consortium of Vernaccia di San Gimignano, representing the flagship white grape of Tuscany (and more specifically for these three areas) had been conducting a one-day anteprima before the start of the main event in Florence. Last year they had officially joined the ‘anteprima tour’ a day earlier making it a 6- day event.
It appears that Toscana Promozione, the government body looking after the export of Tuscan products was keen on bringing the producers of all the Tuscan wines-that include besides Chianti, Bolgheri (where the birth of Super Tuscan wines using majorly the international grape varieties) several other consortiums representing other areas were also herded in to give an exposure to their wines.
Tuscany Taste 2015
For the first time an integrated program Anteprime Toscane was organised under the umbrella of Toscana Promozione. The first day, February 14 was devoted to Chianti and was titled ‘Chianti Lovers’ where 100 producers, as part of the 800,000 hL production from the surface area of 15,500 hA showcased their wines.
Chianti docg allows the maximum use of 10% white grapes, 15% Cabernet Sauvignon with 70% minimum for the Sangiovese. The production area is demarcated by law and is restricted to the 5 provinces of Arezzo, Florence, Pisa, Pistoia, Prato and Siena. They can be further categorised in 7 sub-zones as Colli Senesi, Colli Aretini, Colli Fiorentini, Colli Pisane, Montalbano, Rufina and Montespertoli.
Chianti has developed the image of cheap low ended wines because of their immense popularity resulted in cheap quality and high quantity in the 70s. But the producers have been trying to improve their image over the last few years. They would like to benefit from this congregation of journalists and buyers (in another initiative called Buy Wine running concurrently).
Chianti Classico Collection is the part of the original programme and was held on 17 and 18 February. Their wines are generally considered of finer quality and higher prices due to the soil and climatic conditions and more strictly controlled laws. They would like to have a clear image of their appellation and have even created a newer Black Rooster displayed on the neck of the bottle.
This programme may help the customer understand the differences or create more confusion but there is an equal opportunity for both of these groups to put their claim to the journalists and buyers and showcase the differences.
Chianti is not the only wine or even main wine of Tuscany anymore. There are several smaller zones having different soil conditions that facilitate different types of grapes and styles of wines. Carmignano is one of the oldest producing areas that was once a part of Chianti docg but now has its own docg appellation and boasts of merely 13 producers. Additionally Bolgheri, Orcia, Lucca, Tuscan Coast, Cortona, Morellino di Scansano, Montecucco, Maremma, Voldarno, Pitigliano and Sovena showcased their wines through their respective consortia at the Sala Carrega of the historical Hotel Baglioni on February 15.
The Crescendo of the Tuscany Taste was of course, the Benvenuto Brunello where the historical vintage 2010 brought cheers to the producers and tasters alike on February 20 and 21. The detailed articles will follow in our future editions.
Tuscan wines have been getting more and more popular as the newer areas produce more and more of new wines. The exports have gone up from €456 million in 2003 to €760 million in 2014. It is third in Italy- behind only Veneto and Piedmont. As Gianni Salvadori, the Forestry and Agriculture Councillor of Tuscany said, Tuscany is a real jewel of winemaking, well known in the world for its wealth of wines with different characteristics and countless controlled designations of origin.
The programme has extended from 5 to 8 days (not including a day that I spent on my own, visiting Carmignano)-that may be a bit too long for some but it gives the visitors a rather complete exposure to the wines and taste their diversity in an excellent format, a few logistics glitches notwithstanding. As Silvia Burzagli representing the Marketing for Toscana Promozione conceded, the program would keep getting fine-tuned to an optimum level during the following years. Hopefully, the increased offerings and exposure will result in better sales in India as well in the future years.
Watch out this space for detailed articles of interest.
Subhash Arora |