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ITALY |
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TUSCANY WINE AND FOODWineChianti Classico: This is Italy's most famous product of Bacchus. Chianti is as variable as it is versatile, and while there's plenty of mass-produced cheap wine out there, the vintners of the Chianti Classico zone in the hills between Florence and Siena craft excellent wines of the highest quality. Chianti is without a doubt the most well known of all Italian wines. There may be only one denomination - Chianti D.O.C.G - but there are many different styles, ranging from light Beaujolais-style quaffing wines to structured, complex wines with enough backbone to reward aging and maturing. The predominant grape variety is Sangiovese, but the laws allow for an addition of between 10 and 15% of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Syrah. A Riserva wine is one that has been aged longer before being released; it should come from a good year and benefit from further aging, although it is not always the guarantee of quality that might reasonably be expected. Click here for a brief history of the wines of Chianti over the centuries. The vineyards of Chianti are scattered over much of central Tuscany; the Classico zone begins northwards of Siena and reaches most of the way to Florence. This zone generally produces the best wine. The other six zones are:
Brunello di Montalcino: Brunello is the smell of mossy, damp earth and musky berries. It tastes of dark, jam like fruits and dry vanilla. This is Tuscany's most powerful red, perhaps the top wine in all Italy. Break out this complex elixir to accompany the mighty bistecca alla Fiorentina (Florentine-style steak). It is quite common to find grape varieties whose names change from one area to the next. In this case, Brunello is the name of the grape as well as the wine, but we are still dealing with a variety of Sangiovese, the red grape of Tuscany. Brunello is an expensive wine; this tends to be the first thing people talk about when discussing it - is it worthy of the price tag? This is somewhat of a moot point as the producers seem to have no trouble whatsoever in selling their wines, whatever the price. The ‘second' wine, Rosso di Montalcino, was regularly proposed as a far less expensive alternative, but even this wine has spiraled in price in recent years. As with Barolo, Brunello was often cited as a wine that spent far too long being wood-aged; when it finally emerged it was as a dry wine, packed with tannin and with little remaining fruit. Times have changed, and many wines are now far more approachable. When it is good, it is very, very good, with great depth and structure that benefits from prolonged bottle-aging. Vino Nobile di Montepulciano: This purple-garnet wine smells of violets and tastes of juicy red berries, dark fruits, and a hint of musty, mossy earth. Of the traditional wines (no French grape intrusions), it plays second banana to Brunello, but many people find this Noble Wine a far more forgiving vino, and much more versatile. Although it's powerful and complex, you can drink it with just about anything but fish. Another area, another name for the Sangiovese grape. Take a bow, Prugnolo, sometimes found hereabouts blended with small amounts of Canaiolo and/or Mammolo. When good, it can combine the depth and backbone of a Brunello di Montalcino with the finesse of a fine Chianti. The ‘second' wine to Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, in much the same way as Rosso di Montalcino is the second wine to Brunello di Montalcino. Here too, a lighter juicy wine may be bottled and sold young, as opposed to being aged in wood and left to brood for a while. The DOC was only created in 1989 and a ‘style' has yet to emerge. Rubesco Riserva: This unique and elegant Umbrian wine made by a single estate was so deliciously demanding of attention the authorities had to create a tiny DOCG zone just to incorporate the vineyard. The vintner responsible was Giorgio Lungarotti, experimenting with his grapes in Torgiano south of Perugia. Sagrantino di Montefalco: This dark wine with a rounded mouth feel and tannic bite--about the biggest and most complex wine you'll get in Umbria--has finally been recognized by the new DOCG classifications. Orvieto Classico: Orvieto's white is an ancient wine, made at least since the days of the Etruscans. In Orvieto itself, you can get the traditional abboccato variety, a juicy, semisweet version hard to find elsewhere in this age that demands gallons of dry white table wines. Vin Santo: Grapes that have begun to turn to raisins on the vine and then been sun-dried are fermented in oak barriques to produce Tuscany's powerful sweet dessert "holy wine." The amber drink is fine on its own, but the real way to enjoy it is to use cantucci (twice-baked hard almond cookies) as sponges. Every winemaker sets aside a few barrels of vin santo, but some of the best is made by the Chianti-inventing Cantina di Brolio . |
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