Italy - Tuscany Flashcards
What is the general climate of Tuscany?
Warm Mediterranean with adequate rainfall for viticulture.
Altitude offers an important cooling influence inland.
Most of the rain falls in autumn and winter, though the growing season normally has some rain.
Inland, summers can be hot and winters cold.
Hazards are occasional frost, hail and rain during harvest. Summer drought and prolonged high temperatures (leading to the halting of photosynthesis and incomplete ripening of skins and seeds) can be a hazard in some years.
What is significant about Sangiovese plantings?
The dominant variety in Tuscany (63%), but widely grown in all of central and southern Italy and accounts for 10% of all plantings in Italy, making it the most widely planted variety.
What is the general profile of Sangiovese dominant wines?
Medium ruby, red cherry, red plum and herbal notes, medium to full bodied, with high acidity and high tannins.
Acceptable to outstanding and inexpensive to super premium.
What are some of Sangioveses synonyms?
Morellino di Scansano (appearing in the name of the denomination).
In Montepulciano, it’s known as Prugnolo Gentile.
What is the breakdown of the top 5 varieties in terms of plantings?
Sangiovese 63%
Trebbiano Toscano 5%
Merlot 5%
Cab Sauv 4%
Canaiolo Nero 2%
When does Sangiovese perform best?
Sunny S and SE facing slopes.
Grapes for better quality wines tend to be planted between 200-550m to enable full ripeness, though this risks rain at harvest time.
Now, with a warming climate, growers are looking to plant on higher sites or those with less sunny aspects.
Does best in friable, shale and limestone, and reasonably successful on clay.
What is the main type of vine training and types of planting material for Sangiovese?
Cordons prunes to spurs or can pruned with VSP.
There’s a wide choice of clones available.
Growers have been replacing previous choices, planted to produce high yields with moderate yielding, higher quality or clones, or more recently vines created by massal selection.
Newer clonal release from a range of sources are also popular and vines with less vigour, so therefore less labour intensive are seen as desirable.
What is the Chianti Classico 2000 project?
It resulted in the production of 7 clones that have been widely planted.
The aims were smaller berries, thicker skins, and more open bunches to produce wines with deeper colour, more flavour intensity and greater disease resistance.
What are key viticultural threats to Sangiovese?
Esca has become a significant threat in recent years. Growers now avoid large cuts in old wood to reduce the vulnerability of old vines.
Wild boars can do considerable damage.
Skilled methods of pruning and fencing adds to cost.
What is the trend of Trebbiano Toscanos popularity?
Declining.
Previously valued for being high yielding and reliable, its lack of fruitiness and low flavour intensity has led to a reduction in plantings and, because of increased demand for red wine, it has often been replaced by black varieties.
Why is Trebbiano a suitable variety for Vin Santo?
High acidity, though regularly blended with other varieties.
In which situations can Sangiovese be blended? With which varieties?
In most Tuscan DOC(G)s, which allow either the option of local varieties, eg, Canaiolo or international, eg Cab Sauv, Cab Franc, Merlot and latterly Syrah.
What is the current state of Canaiolos popularity?
Used to be the most popular variety in Chianti before the 19th century, but is now mostly a mere blending option.
What does Canaiolo bring to the blend? What is the view of Merlot and Cab Sauv when blended?
It promotes the red berry fruit and floral nature of Sangiovese.
Especially Cab Sauv, as a blending partner they are too dominant in terms of taste of the final wine, even in small proportions.
