Super Tuscan

		Varietals:	70% Cabernet 20% Sangiovese 10% Merlot
		Vineyard:	Estate Fruit
		Appellation:	Tuscany
		Sub Appellation:	The Maremma
		Fermentation:	The three grape varieties are fermented separately in stainless steel at controlled temperatures (30° C) with long maceration time and frequent racking.
		Wood:	French and American Oak
		Aging:	12 Months in Medium Toast Barrels. each Components aged separately.

WINEMAKER NOTES: Super-Tuscan blend cultivated on the hills surrounding Capalbio, in the Tuscan Maremma. The grapes are pressed and fermented separately at controlled temperatures in stainless steel. The color is ruby red with purple notes. The bouquet is complex, with hints of wild berries and to the mouth reveals great personality, and superb taste, with notes of wild berries. This is one of the best priced super tuscans you will find from the Maremma wine region.

SUPER TUSCANS: The term "Super Tuscan" describes any Tuscan red wine that does not adhere to traditional blending laws for the region. For example, Chianti Classico wines are made from a blend of grapes with Sangiovese as the dominant varietal in the blend. Super Tuscans often use other grapes, especially cabernet sauvignon, making them ineligible for DOC(G) classification under the traditional rules.

In the 1970s Piero Antinori, whose family had been making wine for more than 600 years, decided to make a richer wine by eliminating the white grapes from the Chianti blend, and instead adding Bordeaux varietals (namely, cabernet sauvignon and merlot). He was inspired by a little-known (at the time) cabernet sauvignon made by relatives called Sassicaia, which openly flouted the rules set down for traditional wines in Tuscany. The result was the first Super Tuscan, which he named Tignanello, after the vineyard where the grapes were grown. Other winemakers started experimenting with Super Tuscan blends of their own shortly thereafter.

Because these wines did not conform to strict DOC(G) classifications, they were initially labeled as vino da tavola, meaning "table wine," a term ordinarily reserved for lower quality wines. The creation of the Indicazione Geografica Tipica category (technically indicating a level of quality between vino da tavola and DOCG) helped bring Super Tuscans "back into the fold" from a regulatory standpoint.

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