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 On my return to India last month a friend said he planned to go to Tuscany to visit wineries with a group of friends. His question was which out of the 4 cities they should stay-Florence (preferably not, he said), Montepulciano, Siena or Montalcino. My honest suggestion was to spend a couple of days in each of these enchanting towns. But if they were looking for a base camp, my answer would be San Gimignano.
It is a beautiful, small, charming and very exhilarating medieval town, in the center of Tuscany. All the Tuscan wineries are within 1-1.5 hours and within 60 kms except Montalcino which is 85 kms away. This means one could stay in town, visit wineries in different cities and come back at night. This was presuming of course that his friends would love the beauty the town had to offer and would not mind the lack of some comforts since the hotels in the Centro (the old magnificent city) were made in the old edifices and had small rooms from the olden times. The only exception is a stay at the resort we stayed at- Villa San Paolo Spa Hotel, barely 3 kms from the Centro but very convenient and comfortable.
A total of 2.8 million tourists annually visit the city with a population of merely 2000 (the extended outer area which includes the local wineries, has around 7000 inhabitants), thus validating my preference.
Vernaccia di San Gimignano white beauty
 Vernaccia di San Gimignano was recognised as a DOC wine 50 years ago but it was known even 500 years ago! In fact, according to the government records, it is known to have impressed kings and queens and the top echelons of Tuscan society during the last seven centuries.
Although situated in the zone that is recognised for producing the red wine Chianti Colli Senesi and is gradually getting known for its Sangiovese-based wines as well, it is still world- famous for Vernaccia di San Gimignano- besides the art, history, architecture, natural beauty and panorama, of course.
The historical grape recording in the history for several centuries, Vernaccia di San Gimignano (they need to find a short way of pronouncing the difficult name even though I find it sounds rhythmic. Think Groo-vee for the Austrian grape Grüner Veltliner which was pitted against it at a tasting a couple of years ago in Sala Dante, another historical part of the palace in the center of town) was elevated to the DOCG status in 1993, six years after Albana di Romagna was granted the first docg in 1987.
Specifications for Vernaccia
Vernaccia grapes are cultivated at a height of 200 m- 400 m. The wine must have 85% Vernaccia grapes; the balance is from the authorised non-aromatic varieties, ostensibly to maintain the characteristics of the grape. Grapes like Mueller Thurgau, Gewürztraminer, and Malvasia are not allowed to be used whereas the use of Sauvignon is limited to 10%. The grape yield must be under 9 tons/ hA. Besides Riserva wines are also produced and they must undergo maturing for a minimum of 11 months in wood or steel tanks, followed by at least 3 months in the bottle.
Tasting Vernaccia at the Welcome Dinner
 We arrived in San Gimignano from Florence in almost two hours (it has become traditional that our coach misses one or two passengers and then we wait somewhere till they arrive in a taxi). Welcome dinners are always a pleasure at San Gimignano. Letizia Cesani, President of the Consorzio della Denominazione San Gimignano is the owner of Cesani Winery and a warm and welcoming lady who makes you forget momentarily that you had an exhausting 2 prior days tasting of the Chianti Classico Collections. Though the sit-down dinners seem to drag a bit after the tiring day, the Vernaccia wines are very relaxing- and there is a whole range of them to taste; I must have tasted about 20 wines.
My most favourite on the table were three Vernaccia wines from Azienda Agricola Casa Lucii Libanio- all organic. Mareterra were organic wines produced by Casa Lucii owned by the Lucii family- all very balanced, fresh, crispy, slightly citrus and made you salivate. The Riserva was the complex and most impressive wine; despite the oak aging it maintained purity of the fruit and oak played second fiddle. As Luca Lucii at our table took pains to explain, ‘my father is old school. He feels that the wine must not taste of wood. So we give only a touch of it to add spiciness and complexity.' Visit www.casalucii.it for more details.
As we have found earlier and during the dinner again this time, this is unfortunately not the philosophy of a majority of the Vernaccia producers who feel compelled to add too much oak to make it a powerful and aging wine. But the oak predominates and takes away the purity of the fruit and generally the freshness too. This has been the common refrain at tastings done at De Grada Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, in the old charming town where we tasted the next morning, as in the earlier editions.
Tasting at Sala Dante at Palazzo Comunale
 A guided tasting at the grand old Sala Dante at Palazzo Comunale, adjoining the Duomo, with beautiful frescos in gold and several other colours, is a highlight of the trip. The big room is worth visiting on its own but makes it one of the most beautiful venues for wine tasting. Customarily, at this guided tasting, a similar varietal is picked out from outside the region or even Italy and 5 wines each are tasted with experts. It’s not as much to compete as to compare the different characteristics of the two grape varieties that make it a fun tasting-last year it was Maconaise in Burgundy, preceded by Grüner Veltliner from Austria in 2014.
Giving it a little twist, there were 10 wines selected and various experts guided the tasting that was apparently aimed at Italian journalists as there was no interpretation facility and the non Italian speaking visitors were not even informed about this ritual this time. The experts and producers also discussed the future plans, going forward.
The visit is a bit tight as it does not give the opportunity of visiting any wineries but there are obvious logistics constraints and one must plan to come another time for a few days. Vernaccia di San Gimignano is one of the best value for money white wine varietals but has not made much inroads into India because the producers are generally small in size unlike in Piemonte where Gavi or Arneis are part of a bigger and more powerful red wine portfolio or even Veneto where Valpolicella combines well with Soave whites. The varietal has been a laggard in the Indian market and needs to be promoted through Tuscan producer exporters who can add it to the red wine portfolio.
The best way to have Vernaccia is in San Gimignano in one of the local bars. The next best thing is to look for it in a Retail shop or order in a restaurant in the rest of Tuscany or in India, where available. Ixora has been importing from the co-operative Geografica but with the financial problems of that company which was bought over in November last year by Piccini (represented by Prestige Wines in India), the future is not clear. However, Sachin Rane, Mumbai importer of Geografica for many years, says the management change will not affect his business. In fact, it was held up even befoe the buy out due to labelling issues but now the import was re-starting and the Vernaccia will be available in Mumbai from end of April at Rs.1495.
And if you were to ask me for a central place in Tuscany to stay for a winery tour of the zone, my answer might still be San Gimignano, if you find Florence inconvenient.
You may also like to visit :
Tuscany Taste 2015: Scintillating San Gimignano
Tuscany Taste 2014: I lost my Heart in San Gimignano
Subhash Arora |