Tuscan wine treasures

Tuscany is Italy’s best-known wine region. It’s also the most cosmopolitan where grape varieties are concerned. Home to Chianti, the famous red based on sangiovese, Tuscany has earned a reputation over the past couple of decades for producing impressive wines based on so-called global vines, such as cabernet sauvignon, merlot and cabernet franc.

Some people see Tuscany’s embrace of foreign grapes as controversial. Why plant imports – predominantly of French origin – in a country that boasts more indigenous varieties than any other? I think it’s a fair question, even if some of the cabernet sauvignons (and merlots and cabernet francs) are glorious. Do we need expensive copycats from Italy of all places? And isn’t it slightly ironic? I’ve met Tuscans who’ve raised a skeptical eyebrow at the news that Ontario is now producing good buffalo mozzarella and premium prosciutto, foodstuffs as central to the Italian way of life as a nonchalant disregard for highway speed limits.

Today, the Vintages department of the LCBO in Ontario is rolling out a bunch of Tuscan reds, several of which are outstanding. They’re all from the 2007 harvest, and some contain those “foreign” grapes as well as sangiovese. Residents of other provinces might want to keep an eye out for Tuscan wines with that year on the label. It was, as they say, a very good year, and it’s widely represented on shelves at the moment.

The south Tuscan appellation of Vino Nobile di Montepulciano stands out as particularly successful in 2007. Many of the offerings exhibit a firm tannic backbone and relatively high alcohol, but the Chiantis tend to be decent as well. The first six wines at right, all from Vintages, pair well with hearty pastas and many red-meat dishes, including steak. They’re also good candidates for three to five years of cellaring.

Both Vino Nobile and Chianti are based on the native sangiovese, which produces wines with medium to full body, a bittersweet cherry essence, fresh tug of acidity and often savoury notes of mushroom and violet. But in many cases Chianti producers add a legally permissible dollop of those controversial French varieties to achieve a fuller body and, dare I say it, cosmopolitan flare.