You don’t hear the term “super Tuscan” bandied about as much in the wine world as you once did, largely because there are now officially recognized denominations for the category of wines that were once outlaws of sorts. It all began with one wine, the legendary Sassicaia, created at Tenuta San Guido in Bolgheri by its owner, Marchesi Mario Incisa della Rocchetta, in 1968. He planted his first cabernet sauvignon grapes in 1948, after tasting some Bordeaux wines that left more than a long finish on his palate. He enlisted Antinori’s famed oenologist, Giacomo Tachis, to create a cabernet-based wine that could rival the first-growth wines of Bordeaux, and he was not alone. Around the same time, his nephews, Piero and Lodivico Antinori, were working on a blend of their own, a mix of sangiovese and cabernet sauvignon that they named Tignanello. Then, in 1985, Lodivico Antinori left to start his own project, a sangiovese/cabernet blend called Ornellaia, followed by a merlot, Masseto. These wines are now icons in the wine world and opened the door for change in a region that, like many old-world wine regions, did not embrace that concept easily. Read More