Best Tuscany Wine!The Big Picture Of Tuscany Wine Due to the hilly vineyards and poor soil, the Tuscan wine production points towards quality rather than quantity. In fact Tuscany is the main DOC wine producer, and also many IGT wines reach high quality standards. About 50% of Tuscany wine production is DOC or DOCG and the vast majority (80%) of this production is red wine. The six DOCG best wines are the following: Of these wines only Vernaccia di San Gimignano is white.
The main red grape variety (both qualitatively and quantitatively) is the Sangiovese. The Sangiovese Grosso is the top quality variety, while the Sangiovese di Romagna is the ordinary type. There are also many Sangiovese clones which have local names such as Brunello, Morellino, Prugnolo Gentile. Another great red variety grape, is the Cabernet Sauvignon which has been growing here for 250 years, and has reached its peak in popularity in the 70's. Other red grapes are the natives Mammolo, Canaiolo (cahn eye OH lo), Malvasia Nera, Colorina and the internationals Merlot, Pinot Noir, Syrah. The main white variety grape (quantitatively) is the Trebbiano which produces a fine popular Vermentino. Instead, qualitatively, the best white grape is the Vernaccia, cultivated around the famous medieval town of San Gimignano. The other high quality white grape is the international Chardonnay, with its 150 years of history. The Tuscany wine renaissance, began in the early 70's when Chianti producers changed the quality wine standards all over Italy. The region is mainly hilly, especially inland, while the main mountains (Appennino Tosco Emiliano) can be found on the northern borderline. Tuscany has plenty of vineyard land: In all of Italy only Sicily and Apulia have more acres planted with vines. But seven regions of Italy produce more wine than Tuscany does. Tuscany's hillside vineyard and poor soils are great toward quality rather than quantity of production. Volume-wise, Tuscany produces more DOC wine than any other region except Piedmont and Veneto. Tuscany is situated in Central Italy and borders with the regions of Liguria (northwest), Emilia Romagna (north), Marche (east), Umbria (southeast) and Lazio (south). The entire western side is on the Tyrrhenian Sea. Among all Italian regions, Tuscany has always be ahead in matters concerning arts, politics, science, discoveries: in fact this is the place where geniuses such as Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Michelangelo, Dante, Boccaccio, Macchiavelli, Vespucci, etc. were all born. When you think about Italy, you invariably daydream about Tuscany with its incomparabile cities, Florence and Siena. When you dream about Tuscany you think of Chianti Classico Wine unless you're thinking of Chianti's big brother, Brunello di Montalcino or any of Tuscany's other great wines.
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