Tuscan Wine: Learn About Tuscany’s 7 Winemaking Regions

Tuscany (Toscana) is a region in central Italy, bordered by the Tyrrhenian Sea to the west, Liguria, and Emilia-Romagna to the northwest and northeast, respectively, and Umbria to the south. The capital of Tuscany is Florence, but the region is also home to the cities of Arezzo, Livorno, Lucca, Pisa, Prato, and Siena.

Winemaking in Tuscany can be traced back to the settlement of the area by the ancient Etruscans in the eighth century BC. Archaeological evidence points to wine being exported to southern Italy and the surrounding regions of what would become France, Switzerland, and Germany a century later, and a few hundred years after that, references to Tuscan wine had begun to pop up in Greek literary texts.

After a brief renaissance in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars, the region’s wine production suffered when a bacterial fungus destroyed many of the vineyards in the 1850s, causing many vintners to leave the area or emigrate abroad.

In the 1970s, winemakers in Tuscany, inspired by their visits to Bordeaux, began experimenting with international varieties as well as barriques and extended macerations. They began to believe that Italy could also produce fine wine, and so the ‘Super Tuscan’ phenomenon was born—bold wines made from blends of Sangiovese with non-native grapes like Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot.

Thanks to the tradition of Super Tuscans, Tuscan winemakers don’t shy away from internationally popular grapes like cabernet sauvignon, syrah, pinot noir, and sauvignon blanc; instead, they blend them with indigenous Italian grape varietals. While 80 percent of wine production in Tuscany is dedicated to red wine, its white wines have also garnered worldwide acclaim throughout viticultural history.

• Sangiovese: Italy’s best known and most widely planted type of grape, Sangiovese, is native to Tuscany. Sangiovese grapes have thin skins, a light color, fine tannins, and a long growing season. Wines made from Sangiovese grapes are medium to full-bodied, dry, and highly acidic, with fruity and savory flavors. Common Sangiovese wine flavors and aromas include plum, cherry, violets, tobacco, and leather. In Montalcino, the local Sangiovese variety is known as Brunello.
• Canaiolo: Canaiolo is a mellow red wine grape thought to be native to the Tuscany region and has historically been a dominant grape in the production of chianti and a crucial component of Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, accenting the more herbaceous notes in Sangiovese with its ripe strawberry and savory dried spice flavor.
  
• Colorino: Like its name might suggest, Colorino grapes have a deep, dark purple-black hue that winemakers use to impart color to their blends. Its flavor is correspondingly dark and jammy, with primary notes of boysenberry and huckleberry.
• Mammolo: Known as Sciaccarello in Corsica, France, red Mammolo grapes are soft and light, with distinct peppery notes that bring a floral tone—specifically, violets—to blends like Chianti and Vino Nobile di Montepulciano.
• Malvasia: Malvasia refers to a group of related grape varieties, including Malvasia nera, and Malvasia bianca, the most widely planted type of Malvasia in Italy. While some regions like Piedmont does produce varietal wines using the red Malvasia nera, in Tuscany it plays more of a supporting role; Malvasia bianca, with its notes of ripe, honeyed pear, is used to make vin santo, a dessert wine.
• Vernaccia: Vernaccia is an ancient white wine grape used to make Vernaccia di San Gimignano. It has a fairly acidic profile, with softer notes of yellow apple and almond underlying its crisp, citrus-forward character.
• Trebbiano: Trebbiano is an all-purpose grape in Tuscany, and regional variations of the grape account for a third of all white wine in Italy. Trebbiano Toscano is even included in some red blends, thanks to its neutral flavors and high levels of bright acidity.
• Vermentino: White wine grape Vermentino carries a similar flavor profile to Vernaccia, with salty minerality and soft hints of almond weaving through the main note of floral, bitter citrus, like grapefruit. It is more common in places like Sardinia, but it is used in the Tuscan region of Bolgheri.

Tuscany contains seven main wine regions:

1. 1. Montalcino: Montalcino, located in the province of Siena, is the warmest and driest area in Tuscany, which allows the Sangiovese grapes planted there to achieve maximum ripeness. A cooling air current from the Tyrrhenian Sea brings the temperature down at night, which contributes to a balance of fruit ripeness and acidity in the grapes. Brunello di Montalcino (known as Brunello for short), is a red wine from this region. Brunello was granted DOCG status in 1980 and must be made from 100 percent Sangiovese grapes. It has a savory herbal quality, with notes of cranberry, strawberry, espresso, and sundried tomato.
2. 2. Carmignano: Located in the province of Prato on the eastern face of Monte Albano, Carmignano is known for dry, light-bodied red wines made from a blend of Sangiovese, Canaiolo Nero, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Cabernet Franc. Despite garnering fame as a wine-growing region as far back as the fourteenth century, Carmignano wines were typically absorbed by the trendier Chianti region until the later half of the twentieth century, after a successful campaign landed the area its own DOC and DOCG classifications. Thanks to a noted history of growing Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc throughout the region, Carmignano was also one of the first in Tuscany to win approval to include the non-native grapes in their appellation blends.
3. 3. Chianti: The Chianti region is a vast area divided into seven sub-zones, each one producing its own Chianti wine with a distinctive name and label: Chianti Montalbano, Chianti Rufina, Chianti Colli Fiorentini, Chianti Colli Aretini, Chianti Colli Senesi (an area that also includes Montepulciano and Montalcino), Chianti Montespertoli, and Chianti Colli Pisane.
4. 4. Bolgheri: Bolgheri’s reputation is built on Sassicaia, an iconic local wine made from Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc grapes that trumped a selection of Bordeaux wines in a 1974 competition. Located in the province of Livorno in the Maremma, a coastal region that includes the islands off the coast of western Tuscany, Bolgheri and its vineyards full of Bordeaux-style grapes is the newest of the DOC classified wine regions in Tuscany and emblematic of the Super Tuscan IGT tradition.
5. 5. San Gimignano: San Gimignano, a walled, medieval town in the hills of Siena, is home to Tuscany’s flagship white wine Vernaccia di San Gimignano, beloved since the 1200s and the very first Italian wine to be granted DOC status. It’s also the only white wine in Tuscany to have reached DOCG status.
6. 6. Montepulciano: In southeastern Tuscany in the province of Siena, the rolling hills of Montepulciano sit perched between the Ocria and the Chiana rivers. The region is synonymous with Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, a Sangiovese-based wine redolent with dark fruit like plum, cherry, and strawberry, with tannins not unlike roasted tea.
7. 7. Valdichiana: The Valdichiana is an alluvial valley connecting the provinces of Siena and Arezzo with the northern reaches of Umbria. It is well known for its “Bianco Vergine” white blend (a mix of at least 20 percent of Trebbiano Toscano, and filled out with Chardonnay, Pinot Bianco, Pinot Grigio, and Grechetto), but it is also one of the rare regions in Tuscany that produces a sparkling wine, Valdichiana Spumante.

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