Toscana & Chianti News
Bacchus world
Vintage Showcase
February is the month of the carnival season, Valentine's Day and all manner of fried sweet treats.
For the province of Siena and part of the province of Florence, February focuses on wine too.
It's the week of the Tuscan previews, where leading companies and small producers present the new wines, which are about to hit the market, to journalists, professionals and wine lovers.
The constantly changing wine world is now ready to get things off the ground again and Sangiovese and Vernaccia intend to bear their souls.
Things get under way on 19th and 20th February in the shadows of the medieval towers of San Gimignano, where the Vernaccia Consortium, with its member wine-makers, presents the new vintages that will come out on the market.
Vernaccia is a wine that, albeit pleasing at an early date, has continued to surprise in recent years due to its ageing qualities, producing ever-changing bouquets and flavours.
It's no accident that it is one of the rare white wines also to be produced in the Riserva category.
On 18th, 19th and 20th February, it'll be the turn of Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, where the historical Fortezza Poliziana will stage the event associated with this celebrated wine.
The 2009 Nobile vintages will be showcased, ready to be put on the market after two years of refinement, as well as the 2008 Riserva, a vintage that boasts four stars.
Florence's Stazione Leopolda will host the Chianti Classico Collection, the place best suited to welcome the hundreds of labels from the two provinces of Siena and Florence and the entire areas of the municipalities of Gaiole in Chianti, Radda in Chianti, Castellina in Chianti, Greve in Chianti and parts of the municipalities of Castelnuovo Berardenga, Poggibonsi, Barberino Val d'Elsa, Tavarnelle Val di Pesa and San Casciano Val di Pesa.
New for this year: the event will last for three days instead of two, so taking place from 20th to 22nd February. Tastes of the 2010 vintage, previews from the 2011 casks and the 2009 Riserva will be showcased.
This busy week of wine will end with "Benvenuto Brunello" [Welcome, Brunello] in Montalcino.
From 24th to 27th February, the new wines put on the market will be presented as well as announcing the stars awarded to the new vintages that have just been produced.
Furthermore, as is now the tradition, the commemorative plaque of the new vintage will be positioned on the wall outside Montalcino town hall and the Leccio d'Oro [Golden Oak] awards will be handed out.
This is merely the beginning, to get things warmed up, as everyone in the wine world will head to Verona from 25th to 28th March for Vinitaly.
And you can bet that the wine-makers will have yet more aces up their sleeves!
For 2011 the prestigious American "Wine Enthusiast Magazine" chose Nipozzano Riserva 2007 by Marchesi di Frescobaldi as the wine of the year.
Food traditions love to follow in the footsteps of young Tuscan chefs. In this case, the chef actually has a name. We're talking about Paolo Fiaschi, owner of 'Papaveri Papere' restaurant in San Miniato.
He has paraded his total look around the world, from Dubai to Shanghai to the sumptuous Moscow show some time ago, but without ever forgetting his beloved Tuscany.
