Bolgheri unveils 2019 vintage “en primeur”, and brings “Toscana” on the label

One of the most prestigious brands of wine in the world, Bolgheri, joins one of the strongest and most famous universal brands of made in Italy, Tuscany: if by September 18 there will be no objections, after 30 days from the publication in the Official Gazette, the green light will be given to the modification of the disciplinary that will sanction the obligation - for the producers of Bolgheri Doc (arrived in 1994, so 27 years) - to insert the word Toscana on the label, according to a proposal of modification approved in assembly by all the wineries of the Consorzio per la tutela dei vini di Bolgheri e Bolgheri Sassicaia Doc. An important change to the specification of Bolgheri, therefore, as it is also that of the ampelographic base of white wines. The white version of Bolgheri Doc, when the modification will be operative, will be the wines produced with Vermentino, Sauvignon and Viognier (and no more Trebbiano Toscano), without any limitation of percentages, pure or blended (to which will also be able to contribute other white grapes authorized by the Region of Tuscany, up to a maximum of 40%), in full spirit with the libertarian philosophy which has always governed Bolgheri Doc.

Which dates back much of its fortunes at the end of the sixties of the twentieth century, when, at Tenuta San Guido, with the birth of Sassicaia, the Marquis Incisa della Rocchetta, with the oenologist Giacomo Tachis, have invented a “wine of the future” (or, or, as it was defined by the master “Gino” Veronelli, “an ecstasy of the mind”, ndr), so much so that, a unique case in Italy, the legislator had to sew on a DOC made to measure protected by the Consortium, Bolgheri Sassicaia, recently included in the name of the Consortium. A Supertuscan - and here, as is well known, the reference to Tuscany appears - which ignited the spark for the birth and success of the Bolgheri territory, a “little big” miracle of the made in Italy and land of wine “pioneers”, today more than 65 wineries, enclosed between the hills and the sea of Tuscany, wherein little more than 1,350 hectares of vineyards, where vines such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and others have found their maximum vocation, produce wines among the most desired and quoted by collectors. Very precious vineyards, which today have prices higher than half a million euros per hectare, according to WineNews estimates, and are the focus of new investments from Italy and the world, for a 2020 production of 6.5 million bottles, whose value has grown in double digits in times of pandemic.

2021 is, instead, the year in which the biennial event of the en primeur returns to Bolgheri, with Bolgheri Superiore 2019 (it will go on sale from January 1, 2022) being tasted and Bolgheri Rosso 2020, already on the market, in seven locations of great beauty, with an innovative mix in which the icon-wineries - from Campo alle Comete of the Campania-based brand Feudi di San Gregorio to Guado al Melo (Michele Scienza’s winery), from Donna Olimpia 1898 to Michele Satta, from Ornellaia and Tenuta Argentiera, to Tenuta Guado al Tasso of Marchesi Antinori, the family that launched Bolgheri in the world with style, vision and quality - will host the emerging wineries of this particular terroir of Italy, in search of that principle which is the ability to work as a team, sharing values and friendships among colleagues, as in a gold medal relay race . .. With tastings of old vintages and of the latest one on the market, the 2018, in the dinners in the winery, on September 3, and, above all, in a widespread tasting on September 4, from 10am to 5pm (but only by invitation and logically by reservation).

And if the link between Bolgheri and Tuscany reaches its highest expression in the wines, its strongest image can only be the legendary Avenue of Cypresses celebrated by Giosuè Carducci, background at sunset of a gala dinner, unique in the world, Saturday, September 4, with the producers and their great labels, and destination every year more and more wine tourists arriving from all over the world. Great wines and characters with many stories to tell, and many new chapters to write, a beautiful and poetic natural landscape where wineries are the real “monuments” to be visited, can only be the image of Tuscany. But also of Italy.