March 2nd , 2006 Tuscany Where do you find these wines in GA?

Since both the book and film Under the Tuscan Sun first premiered, Americans have re-awakened to the splendors of Tuscany, a piece of Italy that sits along its central Mediterranean coast. Florence is its artistic and cultural capital. Livorno is its busy seaport. It's the heart of medieval Italy, and the heart of Italian wine growing. Think Chianti Classico, and you think of the most well-known wine-growing region of Tuscany, but don't overlook Montalcino, home to powerful red wines, expensive Brunello di Montalcino and more gently priced Rosso di Montalcino.

Tuscany is best known for its red wines, starring Sangiovese as the principal grape, along with Canaiolo, although other non-traditional red wine grapes also come in to the picture. The city is best known for Chianti, which some consumers may remember from the 1960's when it came in basket-covered bottles and ranged from the tolerable to the barely drinkable. Although it's occurred increasingly less frequently, I used to encounter friends who wouldn't touch a Chianti, so bad were their memories of those wines.

Today, Chianti has shed its negative image. Dating back to 1716, Tuscany was once limited to the land around four villages--Greve, Radda, Gaiole and Castellina--but since then, the Chianti Classico zone has been expanded, and Chianti Classico now constitutes the lion's share of the entire Chianti zone.

Of the White grapes that are grown, perhaps the best known are the Vernaccia di San Gimignano, a wine that writer Karen McNeil describes as "the wine that kisses, licks, bites, and stings!" Some find it difficult to approach, but it is excellent with asparagus--a very difficult pairing mate. The producer Avignonesi makes a Tuscan Chardonnay, and Chardonnay often appears in white wine blends. Malvasia and Trebbiano are two other traditional white grapes produced in Tuscany, and some is blended in to Chianti to lighten it up a notch. The 1963 laws defining Chianti insisted, in fact, on a minimum 10% white wine and allowed up to 30%. The law has been updated as of 2004, according to Sharron McCarthy of Banfi Vintners, with a limit of up to 10% white wine grapes in Chianti and up to 6% in Chianti Classico. Their best use in Tuscany may well be the elixir of sweet wine called vin santo, or "holy wine," usually savored with a simple biscotto.

Wines are classified in Italy under strict government regulation, with specific grapes authorized to specific regions known as the Denominazione d'Origine Controllata (D.O.C.) and Denominazione d'Origine Contrallata et Guarantita. (D.O.C.G.), the latter designating the country's highest quality wines. The entire Chianti zone was elevated to D.O.C.G. status in 1984.

Many winemakers find the bureaucracy and rules governing these designations more than a trifle constrictive, so some work outside the box. For those who do, their wines were required to be labeled as "vini da tavola", known as table wine. In an effort to entice some of those outside-the-box vintners back into the fold, Italy created a designation Indicazione Geografica Tipica (I.G.T) in 1992, which was designed to be a notch better than vino da tavola, although many of the latter can be well worthwhile.

The so-called "Super Tuscan," which is not an official designation, technically fits into this I.G.T. category. Here is where you'll find wines made from other than the traditional grapes, including nontraditional varieties blended with traditional grapes. On the Tuscan coast, Sassicaia (1968) was the first of these Bordeaux-inspired wines, but now it is D.O.C. designated. The Il Grappolo Sassochetto (Bacco Fine Wines) that I tasted at the Atlanta Fine Wine Festival just last weekend is excellent, and a lot less costly (although still not cheap at $99) than the original.

Explore the wines of Tuscany, and you'll find good values as well as wines for the most sophisticated collector for whom money is no object. You'll find both easy drinking wines for dinner tonight, and wines that will need cellaring. You'll find something to suit many a meal and many a memory.


Jane Garvey

Food Pairings: Grilled scallops; grilled shrimp with rйmoulade saujce (not too spicy); creamy seafood and fish mousses; grilled mild fish (swordfish, trout, halibut), chicken tenders in honey and whole-grain mustard; chicken pot pie

Price: $10
Wholesaler: Quality Wine & Spirits

Where to Get: Order from retailer

Food Pairings: Lets the flavor of food come through: Prosciutto, salami cacciatorini, black olives or tapanade, roasted red peppers stuffed with feta cheese, parsley and pine nuts; grilled or roast pork tenderloin, grilled lamb steak or veal chop; Fontina val d’Osta. Stuff a veal chop with Fontina and prosciutto, then grill it. We’d bet on it with roast turkey, duck and Cornish hen, too.

Price: $14
Wholesaler: Vinifera Distributors

Food Pairings: Best with well-flavored foods: Peppered dishes, steak au poivre, peppered liver pвtй, peppered tuna steak; dishes with ample garlic, such as pasta salad with smoked mozzarella (Whole Foods); sausage and peppers; gingered lamb with red peppers (Whole Foods); roast or grilled mixed vegetables; baked Japanese sweet potato; grilled lamb steak; grilled veal chop (outstanding!), roast pork tenderloin or loin, raw mild cheddar

Price: $20
Wholesaler: Empire Distributing

Food Pairings: Calamari, assorted black olives, prosciutto, bruschetti with tomato topping, porcini mushroom ravioli with butter, garlic-rich pasta dishes, including pasta salads, chicken cacciatore; roast chicken, Cornish hen or turkey; grilled swordfish (probably also halibut) both plain and with salsa puttanesca; braised oxtails with mushrooms (awesome!), mild firm or creamy cheeses (nothing stnky).

Price: $16
Wholesaler: Liquid Brands

Price: $40
Wholesaler: Liquid Brands

Food Pairings: The winner: Alsace apple tart. Awesome!!! Also rans: creme brulee; cheesecake; tiramisu; ubriaco al Moscato (Italian crumbly raw cow’s milk cheese). Nice also with creamy pate, foie gras, or goose/chicken liver mousse

Price: $36
Wholesaler: Quality Wine & Spirits