Central Italy comprises the heart of the Italian Peninsula, both geographically and historically. Lazio, which houses the capital at Rome, roughly corresponds to the ancient Roman city, while Tuscany equates generally to the older Etruria. Millennia later, Tuscany grew to become a major economic power in Italy, first as the Republics of Florence and Siena and later as the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. Before the Risorgimento, much of the rest of centraI Italy was made up of the Papal States, under direct rule of the pope and the Vatican. This guide will consider five regions as central Italy: Tuscany, Umbria, Emilia-Romagna, the Marche, and Lazio.
Central Italy begins south of the Po River basin, and, like much of the country, is defined by the Apennine Mountains at its center. Its climate is varied by not only latitude but, importantly, elevation, with many of the top wines coming from higher sites. With Tuscany, central Italy serves as a powerful driver of the Italian wine industry, home to many of the country’s largest and oldest winemaking families, such as the Antinoris and the Frescobaldis. The initial sparks of Italy’s 20th-century winemaking revolution were lit here, with the first bottling of Sassicaia in 1968 and the Super Tuscans that followed.
Today, central Italy is no less dynamic. Italy’s most planted grape variety, Sangiovese, achieves its finest expressions in Chianti Classico and Montalcino. Nearby, in Umbria, Sagrantino has been reimagined for the production of dry red wines. Further north, Emilia-Romagna cultivates the best-known appellations worldwide for sparkling red wine with its various Lambruscos. White wine, too, finds prominence in central Italy, notably in the bottlings of Orvieto, the Malvasia blends of Lazio, and the Verdicchio wines of the Marche. In addition, winegrowers throughout central Italy continue
The expert guides list Classico as a subzone. There are 8 subzones including Montespertoli.
"the Chianti region was officially enlarged in 1932 to include seven subzones: Chianti Classico, Rù…
I’m sure this has come up before, but Jancis Robinson’s Wine Grapes does list Vernaccia Nera as a genetic match for Grenache Noir. Did this get disproven somewhere? Curious why this is referred to as “unfounded” in the text above…
Hey Skyler -- There is some more info on this subject in Ian D'Agata's book Native Wine Grapes of Italy (p. 150) which may be useful: "Vernaccia Nera is not the same as Grenache or Garnacha--though Vernaccia Nera is listed as a synonym of Garnacha by some experts, I couldn't find any ampelographic or genetic evidence to support this. Admittedly, it is easy to understand the association between garnacha and vernaccia since both descend from the same linguistic root, the Latin word vernaculum. However, it appears that many of the Vernaccia Nera vines dispersed in the countryside of central Italy are in fact different from one another. Though some of these grapevines may have been originally misidentified as Vernaccia Nera and really are Grenache, there do exist distinct Vernaccia Nera varieties; for example, Vernaccia Nera Grossa Cerretana is distinct from Vernaccia Nera, and neither is identical with Spain's Garnacha."