Dear Wine Girl:
What’s a Super Tuscan? How would I spot it at a wine store or on a wine list? And if I’m in a restaurant with a lot of Italian offerings I’m not familiar with, would I be safe to just go with a Super Tuscan?
–Super Italo-Curious
Dear SIC:
Fast and loose answer: a high-quality red from Italy’s Tuscany region that’s styled on French Bordeaux.
More nuanced answer: The Super Tuscan was born when Antinori, a big winery in Italy, tried to boost the quality, reputation, and price of Tuscan wine — at that time, mostly mediocre Chianti. They took the local grape sangiovese, blended it with cabernet sauvignon and cabernet franc, aged it in French oak, and gave it the romantic moniker “Tignanello,” the name of the single vineyard that produced the fruit. (Tignanello also was not made with any white grapes, a dollop of which typically went into traditional Chianti.) With the help of Sassicaia, another red with a similar Bordeaux-style recipe, the new Super Tuscans helped Italian wineries bust out of the Chianti closet and play to the big boys from Bordeaux and Burgundy.
For my sure-fire method of spotting a Super Tuscan, click here:
Cynics can safely say the Super Tuscan is a marketing concept. In fact, the term was invented by the American wine magazine The Wine Spectator essentially as a buyer’s guide. But it did take some guts for Italian vintners to start whipping up these new reds. Many Italian wine lovers (both in Italy and abroad) who love the rainbow flavors of Italy’s many different, traditional wines have turned their noses up at the Super Tuscan, saying it tastes like it could have been made in Napa, Saint Julien, or anywhere else that has cabernet and new oak barrels. And because Super Tuscans are made from grapes and techniques that don’t conform to Italian laws governing the production of traditional wine types, they have to be bottled as “IGT,” which is a lowly official quality designation just above table wine.
But how can you spot a Super Tuscan?
Good luck. The label won’t say “Super Tuscan.” It probably won’t tell you which grape varieties are inside — although that wouldn’t be of much help either, since their IGT designation allows Super Tuscans to contain an array of grapes, including cabernet sauvignon, merlot, even syrah. Ergo my tip: If the wine’s from Tuscany and has a fancy “fantasy name” (as Luca, my Italian wine teacher, calls it) splashed big across the label, it’s probably a Super Tuscan. Or, if it’s from Tuscany but it’s not a traditional type (i.e., Chianti, Brunello, or Montepulciano), has a fancy fantasy name, and is twice the price of the Chianti next door, it’s definitely a Super Tuscan.
But, once you’ve spotted it, is that Super Tuscan always going to be a safe bet?
Well, yes, mostly — and it will probably be a high-stakes bet, too. What you can always depend on, though, with a Super Tuscan is that its fruit-forward, well-oaked flavors will comfortingly remind you of your favorite big red. So if you’re looking instead for a more indigenous experience in Tuscan wine, go for a Chianti or a Brunello at the same price and you’ll have a rewarding adventure. Drinking a Super Tuscan is like riding on a luxe cruise ship through the Adriatic; indulging in a great Brunello is like interning at sculpture studio in Florence.
One more note: If the arrival of the Super Tuscan on the scene hadn’t already made understanding Italian wine difficult enough, now other regions are making their own “Supers,” also with intricate fantasy names and unpredictable grape blends. Now, for example, you can get an IGT from the Veneto that tastes like a Valpolicella on steroids, that is, beefed up with some French-native grapes and aged in oak. The ever-present Vitiano, a delicious quaffer made of sangiovese and merlot by a winery called Falesco not far from Rome, could be called a Super Umbrian. The good news is that the Lesser Supers are cheaper — and still infused with the maverick, international-looking spirit of the Super Tuscan.
