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Central and Southern Italy

Table of Contents
  1. Tuscany (Toscana)
  2. Umbria
  3. Marches (Marche)
  4. Abruzzo
  5. Latium (Lazio)
  6. Molise
  7. Campania
  8. Apulia (Puglia)
  9. Basilicata
  10. Calabria
  11. Siciliy (Sicilia)
  12. Sardinia (Sardegna)
  13. Review Quizzes

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Tuscany (Toscana)

On the Tyrrhenian Coast of Italy, the region of Tuscany has become a byword for Italian culture. A famous artistic legacy and rich history match the natural beauty of the Tuscan countryside, unfolding in waves of golden and green hills that ebb and flow between the Apennine Mountains and the sea.



Wine is deeply embedded in Tuscany’s cultural heritage—the famous medieval Florentine poet Dante Alighieri praised the Vernaccia of San Gimignano, and legislation delimiting the Chianti zone dates to 1716. The first DOC and DOCG zones to be authorized in Italy were Tuscan. Wine and commercial agriculture are big business in Tuscany, and the hills are a patchwork of olive tree groves, vineyards, and wheat fields—a natural evolution of the “promiscuous” agriculture that ancient Romans practiced, wherein these three staple crops of Tuscany were planted side by side in the same fields. In the past, Chianti was synonymous with Italian wine—and a reminder, not unfairly, of its troubled quality. Historically bottled in a fiasco due to the inferior quality of Italian glass, the squat, straw-covered Chianti bottles came to epitomize the rustic, cheap nature of Italian wine in the late 1960s, ‘70s, and ‘80s. Tuscany’s winemakers have responded with a surge in quality over the last quarter century, slashing vineyard yields and building on the successes of the “Super-Tuscan” trailblazers Marquis Mario Rocchetta, who released the first commercial vintage of Sassicaia in 1968, and his nephew Piero Antinori, whose Tignanello bottling soon followed. While the benchmark for quality has been raised significantly, it may be at the expense of typicity—the Bordeaux grapes and model of winemaking extend great influence over the modern Tuscan
Comments
Anonymous
Parents
  • over 1 year ago

    May I ask for some clarity about the Classico sub-zones?
    The compendium states that there are 8 sub-zones in the classico DOCG: Barberino and Tavarnelle being one. However the map shows, Tavarnelle val di pesa and Barberino val di pesa as seperate sub-zones. 

  • over 1 year ago in reply to Manuel Schembri

    Edit: Baberino val di Elsa and Tavarnelle val di Pesa*

  • over 1 year ago in reply to Michael Markarian

    Here is another good summary of the new UGAs from Italian Wine Central: italianwinecentral.com/.../

  • over 1 year ago in reply to Manuel Schembri

    Hello Manuel — Barberino Val d’Elsa and Tavarnelle Val di Pesa were formerly two different communes within the province of Firenze (Florence) and part of the Chianti Classico area.  In 2019 they were combined administratively into a single municipality called Barberino Tavarnelle. The subzones or UGAs (additional geographic units) are awaiting final approval and will be for the Gran Selezione category only. Many of the subzones align with the communes geographically but others do not. The new subzone that will cover the communes of Barberino Tavarnelle and Poggibonsi will be called San Donato in Poggio.  You can see a map of the new UGAs here: www.chianticlassico.com/.../

Comment
  • over 1 year ago in reply to Manuel Schembri

    Hello Manuel — Barberino Val d’Elsa and Tavarnelle Val di Pesa were formerly two different communes within the province of Firenze (Florence) and part of the Chianti Classico area.  In 2019 they were combined administratively into a single municipality called Barberino Tavarnelle. The subzones or UGAs (additional geographic units) are awaiting final approval and will be for the Gran Selezione category only. Many of the subzones align with the communes geographically but others do not. The new subzone that will cover the communes of Barberino Tavarnelle and Poggibonsi will be called San Donato in Poggio.  You can see a map of the new UGAs here: www.chianticlassico.com/.../

Children
  • over 1 year ago in reply to Michael Markarian

    Here is another good summary of the new UGAs from Italian Wine Central: italianwinecentral.com/.../

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