Regional History
Tuscany’s influence on viticulture has been profound and indelible. Etruscan artifacts and the fossilized remains of indigenous vinifera rootstock indicate an advanced wine culture as far back as 800 BC. Their methods profoundly influenced the Romans, whose tenacity spread them throughout most of the Mediterranean and as far north as the Rhine Valley.
Rome’s penchant for agricultural inventiveness refined the Etruscan techniques (mostly how vines were best pruned and trained) and set the stage for succeeding developments in the wine trade.
The Rinaiscimento brought to prominence many of the noble Tuscan families. Antinori, Ricasoli, and Ruffino became symbols of Tuscany’s political and economic importance and were responsible in good part for the expansion of trade and increased respect for Florence’s wines – known colloquially as Vermiglio.
Ironically, early references to the wines of Monte Lucini and Monte Alcino are to white wines. Little is mentioned of red until well into the Nineteenth Century when Ferruccio Biondi-Santi began his great experiments on an obscure sub-variety of Sangiovese – called Brunello for its dark, dusky color.
Ferruccio, a veteran of the Risorgimento (he fought with Garibaldi at Bezzecca), took his grandfather Clementi’s work with this new clone at IL Greppo, reduced the normal yields, fermented it without governo, and aged it in large Slovenian oak barrels. He is still credited with creating the first modern Tuscan red.
Regional Foods
Tuscany is perhaps the quintessential Italian landscape. Its gentle, rolling hills are graced with fields of sunflowers, grapevines, and olive orchards. The region’s beautiful hill towns still mesmerize travelers with the promise of an extraordinary meal.
The best beef in Italy, Chianina, is farmed in the Chiani River Valley west of Brunello. There is also excellent chicken known as Livornesi, as well as rabbit, wild boar, pigeon and woodcock.
But olive oil is what makes Tuscan food so unmistakably Tuscan. Rather than a dressing, the oil is the basis for nearly every dish. Food is sauté and fried in it, soups are finished benedette – given a last-minute benediction by spooning oil into them – and every vegetable is made tastier with a couple of tablespoons of local olive oil.
© 2007 Moore Brothers Wine Company