Fifty years on, Tuscany's remarkable renaissance – the wine one, not the one involving statues and frescoes and people with names like Leonardo and Botticelli – can pretty much be deemed complete.
Exhibit A: Once known mainly for anemic, tooth-corroding reds that came in straw-bottomed "fiascos," Tuscany is now the auction market's darling. Trading activity and price growth of the Italian region's top brands in recent years have been outpacing the most famous wines of hallowed Bordeaux, according to figures compiled London-based Liv-ex, a sort of "stock" market for investment-grade wines.
Exhibit B: Those rustic fiascos, which Chianti producers abandoned in droves after the 1970s in favour of tall-shouldered Bordeaux-style bottles, have begun to re-emerge in a sort of kitschy homage to the past. The message: We're comfortable enough in our success to play the cheesy-nostalgia card.
Exhibit C: Piero Antinori, the pioneer who ignited the quality flame in the late 1960s, has just published his memoir. It's called The Hills of Chianti and it closes the circle on a career that changed everything under the Tuscan sun where wine is concerned. In it, the 76-year-old looks back on more than six centuries of a family's wine-making dynasty, now led largely by his three daughters. But 1971 may stand out as the most important date in that tale. That's when a little garage wine called Sassicaia, produced for private consumption by Antinori's uncle but commercialized at Antinori's urging, was launched on the market. An oddity, it was made from the French variety cabernet sauvignon rather than the indigenous and much lighter sangiovese mandated – along with more insipid varieties – by the Chianti formula.
An instant hit, Sassicaia thumbed its nose at the status quo by rejecting the Chianti name (the winery in fact is located on the western coast, well outside the Chianti zone) and its straightjacket of production restrictions. Dubbed the first "super-Tuscan," it spawned many followers. Notable among them was Antinori's own Tignanello as well as the Frescobaldi family's magnificent Ornellaia and Masseto. Perhaps more importantly, the rogue super-Tuscans sparked a revolution in the quality of traditional sangiovese-based wines, which included Chianti as well as Brunello di Montalcino and Vino Nobile di Montepulciano. Today, most producers of my acquaintance eschew the term super-Tuscan because it suggests a hierarchy in quality that no longer exists.
Here's a selection of new-style and old-school Tuscan reds, drawn largely from a regional spotlight at Ontario Vintages stores (with some available in other provinces). Mostly, they're not cheap, virtually all fit to improve with five or more years in the cellar. But the last two, with allusions to the real Renaissance, are nice for the price. The last even comes in a straw fiasco.
Ornellaia 2011 (Italy)
SCORE: 96 PRICE: $189.95
This Bordeaux-style red blend of cabernet sauvignon, merlot, cabernet franc and petit verdot hit impressive heights in 2011. An unattainable luxury to most of us with salaried jobs, it's built for the long haul, destined to hit its sweet spot between eight and 30 years. The chalky astringent tannins are dense and at the moment jarring, forming the firm backbone of a handsome, structured and rich wine. $189.99 in B.C., various prices in Alberta, $189.25 in Quebec.
Luce 2011 (Italy)
SCORE: 94 PRICE: $99.95
It's been almost two decades since Luce della Vite was founded in southern Tuscany's Montalcino zone as a joint venture by Vittorio Frescobaldi and California's Robert Mondavi. As if to wink at the late, great Mondavi, this 2011 reveals a ripe, luscious mocha quality characteristic of well-oaked, sunny California reds. A velvety blend of merlot and sangiovese, it's rich and intriguingly layered, with hints of cherry liqueur, raisin, dark chocolate, mint, vanilla, coffee, leather and tobacco. The sticky tannins remain tight and dry. It would soften with four more years and I suspect would improve for up to 30. $105 in B.C., various prices in Alberta, $99.95 in Manitoba.
Livio Sassetti Pertimali Brunello di Montalcino 2007 (Italy)
SCORE: 93 PRICE: $45.95
My kind of Brunello, this is. Ripe but not prune-like, it dishes up stewed cherries, licorice and a hint of old wood, lifted by spices and a whiff of underbrush. It's like eating cherry jam by an old church in the woods. And there's a judicious note of funky barnyard in the mix. Drink it now or over the next eight years. Available in Ontario.
Antinori Badia a Passignano Chianti Classico Riserva 2009 (Italy)
SCORE: 91 PRICE: $44.95
Made entirely from Tuscany's traditional sangiovese grape, this full-bodied, cellar-worthy Chianti achieved extreme ripeness in the fine 2009 growing season. It exhibits a prune-like note reminiscent of young Tawny port along with tobacco, cedar, leather and spices. Crisp acidity keeps it vibrant. Drink it now or cellar it for up to eight years. $45.99 in Nova Scotia.
Poggio Verrano Chance 2006 (Italy)
SCORE: 90 PRICE: $37.95
The new Tuscany is much alive in this modern red blend from an estate founded in 2000. A mix of cabernet sauvignon, sangiovese and cabernet franc from the Maremma coast, it's made by Francesco Bolla, whose father and grandfather turned out Soave and Amarone farther north in Italy's Veneto region. Chewy as ball-park gum but far more rewarding, Verrano's Chance is full-bodied and very ripe, with cherry, chocolate, vanilla and licorice notes sitting on an earthy carpet of underbrush. The formidable 15-per-cent alcohol peeks through ever so slightly. $36.25 in Quebec.
Gaja Ca'Marcanda Promis 2011 (Italy)
SCORE: 90 PRICE: $48.95
Angelo Gaja, the prince of Barbaresco in Italy's northeast, turned heads when he invested in this Tuscan property farther south. Known for having little shame on the matter of exorbitant prices, he was bound to push up values here. Other critics I've spoken with like this 2011 vintage better than I do. It's plummy and rich, lifted by a suggestion of aromatic baking spices, but ultimately it's too ripe and sweet to merit the sort of high score Gaja deserves with most of his Piedmontese Barbarescos. $55.99 in B.C., various prices in Alberta, $48.49 in Nova Scotia.
Vignamaggio Monna Lisa Chianti Classico 2011 (Italy)
SCORE: 88 PRICE: $19.95
The large reproduction of Leonardo da Vinci's most famous painting on this redesigned label is not arbitrary. The model who sat for the portrait was Lisa del Giocondo, wife of Florentine merchant Francesco del Giocondo and a member of the Gherardini family that built the Vignamaggio estate in the 15th century. (Monna is commonly used in Italian in place of the vulgar mona.) Recently made widely available in Ontario, this is textbook modern Chianti: medium-bodied, with a very dry, granular texture and notes of cherry and leather and suggestions of salt and smoke on the back end. Various prices in Alberta.
Leonardo Chianti Fiasco 2012 (Italy)
SCO RE: 88 PRICE : $15.95
Medium-bodied and supple, this basic-level Chianti shows pleasant ripe cherry and savoury notes, finishing with light, powdery tannins. $19.99 in Nova Scotia.