Under the Tuscan sun

EARLY October is an ideal time to visit Tuscany. Just outside the peak travel season, travellers can avoid the throngs of summer tourists, while still enjoying unique autumn highlights, top among which is the annual vinicultural harvest.

Italy is the largest producer of wine in the world – it accounted for almost one-fifth of the entire global production in 2022. The country is also the world’s most viniculturally diverse: Around 400 native grape varieties are grown for winemaking, and Tuscany exemplifies much of this kaleidoscope of different terroirs, strains, and production methods.

The history of wine is intertwined with the rolling Tuscan hills that dominate the region’s landscape. Home to the likes of famous wine classifications such as Chianti Classico, Brunello di Montalcino, and the more recent (yet no less famous) Super Tuscans from the 1970s, Tuscany’s wineries produce wines from 41 DOC (Denominazioni di origine controllata or controlled destination of origin) and 11 DOCG (Denominazione di origine controllata e garantita or controlled and guaranteed destination of origin).

These regulations (the latter designation being more stringent) govern various aspects of the winemaking process, including region of production, grape varieties used, maximum harvest yields, and minimum ageing durations (in barrels of specific sizes and oak). This ensures a certain quality and consistency in the wines bearing these labels.

A deeply local, familial endeavour

A trip to Tuscany lets spill the rich and diverse history of winemaking in the region, often defined by the prominent winemaking families that have shaped the evolution of regional oenology.

In passing through Bolgheri – a sunny and quaint medieval town (and origin of the eponymous DOC label) situated on the Tuscany’s Mediterranean coastline – an introduction to its wineries would be incomplete without sharing the tale of two sisters: Countess Clarice and Charlotte della Gherardesca, who married into noble families (one a marquis from Piedmont, and another a member of the famous Antinori winemaking dynasty) with different winemaking traditions.

These two wineries eventually birthed the world-renowned Sassicaia (notably accorded its own single estate, single wine DOC label) and Ornellaia Super Tuscans – full-bodied red wines made from non-indigenous (and at the time, unsanctioned) grapes such as Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon.

Indeed, Tuscan wines remain as varied as the different landscapes and personalities which have influenced them – in a continuous tension between traditional and more progressive approaches to winemaking.

While Tenuta San Guido (with Sassicaia) and Marchesi Antinori (with Tignanello) received due recognition in the early 1970s for the release of their revolutionary Super Tuscans, a visit to the famous Brolio Castle in the heart of the Chianti Classico DOCG region presents the obverse in the form of Baron Bettino Ricasoli, second prime minister of a unified Italy in the mid-19th century, and also remembered as having shaped the modern recipe for Chianti wines.

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Till today, the Ricasoli family continues to produce Chianti Classico wines from estates in the surrounding countryside – top of the list being the four Gran Selezione 100 per cent Sangiovese wines. While the family’s Castello di Brolio Gran Selezione – aged 22 months in 500L French oak Tonneaux – has been produced only in the best vintages over the last two decades, the single vineyard Colledila (“on the other side of the hill”) Gran Selezione was a personal favourite, made from Sangiovese grown in a single plot of calcareous and clay soils, and having undergone the same oak ageing process.

Perhaps that is what Tuscany’s winemakers do so well – a sublime combination of old and new, in a constant cycle of innovation and reinvention. These include Tenuta San Guido’s now well-established Sassicaia vintages, born of a pushback against restrictive local DOC practices in the pre-1990s, but which have themselves gradually made way for the winery’s release of its more accessible Guidalberto and La Difese IGT (Indicazione Geografica Tipica, an even broader category then DOC and DOCG, that just indicates a specific region of origin) wines at the turn of the millennium.

The various wines from across the region are reflective of more than the local terroir, but also the history and efforts of the local communities deeply involved in their production. Our visits to the various wineries showed us that winemaking remains a deeply communal activity – serving as both a source of stable employment, and local pride.

While at Tenuta San Guido and Barone Ricasoli, we were fortunate enough to catch the last stages of the annual harvest season, with workers screening the grapes before they entered the de-stemming machine. While focused on the task at hand, employees were nonetheless eager to share with us on specific details of the year’s harvest – clearly, they are invested in the fruits of their collective efforts. 

Of gastronomic pairings, and sightseeing

The allure of winemaking aside, visiting Tuscany’s wineries would be incomplete without the iconic local dishes paired with these wines. The aforementioned Chianti Classico wines – with their distinctive tannic, fuller-bodied notes – pair perfectly with a serving of Bistecca alla Fiorentina, or Florentine steak.

Obtained from the sirloin cut of a young Chianina cow, the steak is initially grilled at a high temperature over charcoal embers, inducing a Maillard reaction that produces its distinctive, umami-rich crust.

We were able to sample Bistecca alla Fiorentina in Trattoria Da Benito, a family-run restaurant situated in the Tuscan hamlet of Orentano. Amid the current global craze around trendy locavore restaurants, Da Benito comes across as a restaurant that created the locavore (someone who eats only locally grown food) checklist, while continuing to execute it in a deeply unassuming manner.

The trattoria exuded an incredibly homely feel, with most of its clientele on the Monday evening that we visited seemingly residents of the town, and the ingredients (down to the olive oil served at the table, and the freshly-baked schiacciata toscana) having come from the surrounding countryside. 

Besides enjoying these oenological and gastronomic experiences, there are also various historical sites that one can visit in Tuscany – which bookend the millennia-long history of the region, from the Etruscans in the 6th century BCE to the foundation of modern Italy during the risorgimento (or reunification) of the mid-19th century (for which the above-mentioned Baron Bettino Ricasoli played a crucial role).

One such site, adjacent to the Chianti Classico DOCG area, is Siena – a medieval walled town and Unesco world heritage site famed for its iconic Gothic architecture. The many well-preserved buildings in Siena’s historic centre were largely built between the 12th and 15th centuries, with an encircling system of fortifications that allude to the centuries of internecine conflict in Tuscany, and which set the backdrop for the rich tradition of winemaking in the region.

Visiting Siena wrapped up the story of the many wineries visited on our trip, contextualising their origin and development across the centuries, within the wider historical arc of central Italy’s history. From Tenuta San Guido, to Barone Ricasoli, and Marchesi Antinori, the wineries differ greatly in their winemaking styles, production volume and terroir, but all continue to share a deep commitment to safeguarding the cultural inheritance handed down from generations past, while continuing to innovate on their winemaking processes.

A confluence of unique factors

Oenology is both a science and an art – combining the richness of a locale’s history and culture, with the depth of its terroir, and a touch of fate. All in all, if you’re visiting Tuscany in autumn, what better way to experience its rich culture – exemplified by its rich oenological and gastronomic diversity – then by visiting the longstanding winemaking tenuta scattered throughout its varied terrain and accompanying terroirs. Such an experience would impart more than just the visceral enjoyment of the renowned wines produced on-site, but also the history of key figures that have shaped modern Italy and one of its most famous exports.

The writer is a Singaporean with an enduring interest in other peoples and cultures