TDG Wine Camp: Hallelujah I'm Born again!

[Craig Camp]

As the smells and crackling sounds of the rabbits roasting in the huge fireplace filled the warm Tuscan farmhouse kitchen, he described each wine and vintage and talked about the potential greatness of sangiovese. Sergio Manetti believed in sangiovese.

click here for Wine Camp: The rebirth of Chianti Classico

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[project]

Gee, I long thought that some of the best of the Chianti Classico Riserva bottles with the black rooster logo were some of the better red wines widely available and one of the best bargains in red wine.

I remember opening some of these and finding that the oxygen did great things; the results were as much fun as many wines from the Haut Medoc or Cote d'Or.

For "Super-Tuscan" I don't know what they are shooting for, but if it makes the old Chianti Classico Riserva ignored and less expensive, terrific!

From the California wines, I eventually concluded that wine makers deliberately and carefully making new wines would succumb to some low values and, in a music analogy, come out with pop music instead of better Beethoven.

For "Super-Tuscan", what are they shooting for?

[Craig Camp]

Gee, I long thought that some of the best of the Chianti Classico Riserva bottles with the black rooster logo were some of the better red wines widely available and one of the best bargains in red wine.

I remember opening some of these and finding that the oxygen did great things; the results were as much fun as many wines from the Haut Medoc or Cote d'Or.

For "Super-Tuscan" I don't know what they are shooting for, but if it makes the old Chianti Classico Riserva ignored and less expensive, terrific!

From the California wines, I eventually concluded that wine makers deliberately and carefully making new wines would succumb to some low values and, in a music analogy, come out with pop music instead of better Beethoven.

For "Super-Tuscan", what are they shooting for?

The Gallo Nero (black rooster) logo of the Chianti Classico consortium is no longer synonymous with Chianti Classico. About 80% of the wine produced with the Chianti Classico DOCG is by members of the consortium. However, in that other 20% are some of the most important quality producers. The Gallo Nero is no longer what it used to be.

The term Super-Tuscan which was born out of the need to go beyond the out-dated restrictions of the old DOC and consortium and led the way to the future. Today all to often "Super-Tuscans" are a code word for wines produced in the "international" style that features heavy fruit extract and loads of new-oak. You can see ads for $10 wines calling themselves Super-Tuscan. This indeed is a term that means nothing anymore.

Perhaps the best analogy now are the Super-Whites of Friuli, which are whatever their producers want them to be. This is what Super-Tuscans are.

There is a legitimate need for a name to differentiate the cabernet/merlot based wines from sangiovese based wine, but "Super-Tuscan" does not (nor ever did) fulfill that need.