10 TUSCAN TREASURES

Once commonly known as “Super Tuscans,” today’s popular bottlings from the Indicazione Geografica Tipica (IGT) appellation of Toscana descend from a handful of rebel wines that heralded a new era of winemaking in Italy.

Because they didn’t adhere to the Italian winemaking laws of the time, these were originally labeled as modest Vino da Tavola, or table wine. But when pioneering names like Tignanello and Sassicaia—the latter now produced within its own Denominazione di Origine Controllata (DOC), Bolgheri Sassicaia—proved overnight successes, Tuscan producers felt encouraged to rethink things. In the 1970s, they began to plant international varieties, employ new barriques and create fantasy-named bottlings.

For years, these expensive, world-class “table” wines were technically superior to many of Italy’s traditional offerings, which were stifled by archaic DOC and DOCG