Brunello di Montalcino | Vino Con Vista Italy Travel Guides and Events

Casanova di Neri Brunello di Montalcino 2003 Italian wine from Tuscany made from Sangiovese (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Vineyards in the Italian wine region of Tuscany in mid November. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Nottola Vino Nobile di Montepulciano (Photo credit: Bernt Rostad)

A wine barrel with a cross on it designating that it is being used to aged the Italian dessert wine Vin Santo. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Português: Garrafa de vinho Brunello di Montalcino de Biondi Santi – 1985 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

English: A close-up view of sangiovese grapes to be made into Chianti at the Colle Lungo vineyard in Castellina in Chianti, Tuscany, Italy (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Vineyard growing in the Italian wine region of Tuscany, home of the Sangiovese-based Vino Nobile di Montepulciano wine. The photo also demonstrates the viticultural technique of clear (or bare) cultivation that leaves bare soil between the vines and rows with no cover crops. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Italian Wine can be incredibly confusing if you don’t look at a Regional Wine Map. Here is a Wine Spectator Map of Tuscany:

http://assets.winespectator.com/wso/Maps/Tuscanymap.pdf

The map will help you to understand noteable wine regions in Tuscany. Tuscany is in central Italy along the Tyrrhenian Coast. Some wine regions are closer to the sea and other regions are further inland. This is an important point to remember! Livorno, Bolgheri and Grosseto are coastal areas.

Tuscan Wine tasting seminar (Photo credit: cizauskas)

Brunello di Montalcino (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Sangiovese grapes thrive in this region. They are used to produce Chianti, Brunello di Montalcino and Vino Nobile di Montepulciano. Follow this link to the “Strada del Vino Nobile di Montepulciano”:

http://www.stradavinonobile.it/

Sangiovese grapes on the vine in the Italian wine region of Chianti (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Chianti and Chianti Classico are separate designations. Classico is produced between Florence and Siena: Colli Senesi is produced in the Province of Siena and Colli Fiorentini is produced in the province of Florence.

The Carmignano area is west of Florence and the Chianti Rufina area is east of Florence.

Tuscany 2008 (Photo credit: mzarro)

Italy – Vernaccia di San Gimignano 1978 (Photo credit: roger4336)

Chianti sub-zone (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Vernaccia grapes are used to produce Vernaccia di San Gimignano and Vin Santo. They are both produced in the province of Siena.

The Italian wine Vin Santo with its traditional food pairing of Biscotti (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Carmignano is a blend of Sangiovese and Cabernet Savignon and sometimes Cabernet Franc produced in the provinces of Florence and Prato; a precursor to the “Super Tuscan” from the Bolgheri Region in the Livorno Province.