The “Anteprime di Toscana” week is ready to present great wines, history, beauty, landscape

Eugenio Giani, president of the Tuscan Region, at the presentation of the “Week” of “Tuscan Wine Previews”, told WineNews, “People who visit Tuscany, come to Florence to the Uffizi museum, which this year hit a record of over 2 million visitors, to see Botticelli’s Primavera, and Michelangelo’s “Tondo Doni”, but then they want to go to a good restaurant, where the essential element is wine, accompanied by a Florentine steak. When the cultural attraction is combined to food and wine, no one can beat Tuscany”. Giani’s words will open the event on Friday, February 10th starting with “Buy Wine”, which will continue on Saturday, February 11th. “PrimAnteprima” will open on Saturday, to continue in Florence, on Sunday, February 12th, presenting “Chianti Lovers & Rosso Morellino”, while Monday, the 13th, and Tuesday the 14th, the “Chianti Classico Collection” will be on stage. The next day, Wednesday, February 15th, the “Preview of Vino Nobile di Montepulciano” will be in Montepulciano, and on Thursday, February 16th, the “Preview of Vernaccia” in San Gimignano. On Friday, February 17th, in Florence, the “Preview of L’Altra Toscana”, (hosting producers members of the Consortiums of Carmignano, Chianti Rufina, Colline Lucchesi, Cortona, Orcia, Maremma Toscana, Montecucco, Suvereto and Val di Cornia, Terre di Casole, Terre di Pisa, Valdarno di Sopra, and TGI Toscana), debuting new vintages of the various denominations.
It is a mosaic of territories and stories, the gems that makeup 60.000 hectares of vineyards in Tuscany, where an average of over 2 million hectoliters per year are produced, 97% of which are PDO and PGI.
“Buy Wine”, will officially open the two days of business meetings on Friday, February 10th at 11am at the Fortezza da Basso. 47 Tuscan denominations will be participating in the event, together with 160 buyers from 39 different Countries, who will gather at the Fortress to meet 230 Tuscan companies — selected through a Regional tender — and learn about 1.400 wines that the producers have uploaded to the online catalog, visible to buyers. The catalog is a key tool in building meeting agendas, allowing buyers to see the technical data of each reference and make a more knowledgeable choice about which manufacturer to meet. The marathon will continue the following day, with more than 3.000 handshakes and 23.000 tastings. When the two business-to-business days are over, buyers will have the opportunity to participate in one of the 5 “wine tours”, organized in collaboration with the Chambers of Commerce of Florence and North-West Tuscany. Some of the options available include Masterclasses and visits to the city of Lucca (together with LuccaPromos), an itinerary on the hills of Pisa and Volterra (together with Terre di Pisa), visits to marble quarries and wineries in Massa Carrara, and Masterclasses in collaboration with the Chianti Wine and the Chianti Classico Consortiums.
Stefania Saccardi, Councilor for Agriculture and vice president of the Tuscany Region also told WineNews, “‘Buy Wine’ numbers are excellent; many companies are participating, even medium-small ones, which do not already have an established name on the markets. The meaning of this format is also to support the smallest companies that do not yet have the resources of the more established ones on International markets, and thus they have the opportunity to tell the world about themselves and open up to markets, as otherwise, they would not have access”.
On Saturday, February 11th, at the Cinema La Compagnia in Florence, the event will double with “PrimAnteprima”, a whole day-event dedicated to world media, in which data on trends and exports of the Tuscan wine sector will be made public, as well as news on the subject of wine tourism. The guest of honor will be Dario Dainelli, a former Fiorentina and Chievo Verona footballer, and now a winemaker. The meeting will be moderated by Nicola Prudente, aka “Tinto”, television personality of the show “Camper - Rai 1”, and the historical voice of “Decanter - Rai Radio 2”. Various personalities will make speeches such as Eugenio Giani, president of the Tuscany Region, Stefania Saccardi, vice president and councilor for agriculture of the Tuscany Region, Leonardo Bassilichi, president of the Florence Chamber of Commerce, Francesco Palumbo, director of the Fondazione Sistema Toscana, Tiziana Sarnari, market analyst at the Services Department for the Rural Development of ISMEA, Roberta Garibaldi, professor of Tourism Management at the University of Bergamo, and Francesco Mazzei, president of AVITO - Association of PDO and PGI Tuscan Wines. The Kyle Phillips Prize will be assigned on stage, by Leonardo Tozzi, president of ASET, and Stefania Saccardi, vice president of the Tuscan Region, (awarded to Fabio Rizzari, a long-time wine journalist, who after starting his career at Luigi Veronelli's magazine, “Ex Vinis”, was a wine writer for many years on the “Gambero Rosso”, and editor, from 2003 to 2014, of the guide, “I Vini d’Italia de L’Espresso”).
This year, there will be two events to enhance “PrimAnteprima" day, hosted by Palazzo Medici Riccardi (via Cavour 5). One is the vernissage of the exhibition, “Nuove Cantine Italiane. Territori e Architetture”, edited by the magazine, “Casabella”, including images of the most spectacular designer wineries in the Country (open to the public on February 11th, from 2:30pm to 7pm, and, February 12-19, from 11am to 7pm, except Wednesdays, admission free). On Saturday, February 11th, in collaboration with the magazine “Casabella”, the conference “The architecture of wineries and wine tourism” will be held at Palazzo Medici Riccardi. It is the ideal continuation of the 2020 International meeting in which the wineries of the “Tuscan Wine Architecture” network participated. This year the architectural studios that have given shape to some of the most renowned and photographed structures in Tuscany will participate (to be held in the Luca Giordano room, 2:30 pm, reservations required, www.casabellaformazione.it). The exhibition and conference are sponsored by the Tuscan Region, the Metropolitan City of Florence, the Federation of PPC Tuscan Architects, and the Order of PPC Architects of Florence, Inarch/Tuscany. You will be able to follow the “PrimAnteprima” on the Tuscan Region’s websites and social channels, intoscana.it, BuyWine, and the Chamber of Commerce of Florence.

Focus - Tuscan wine numbers

According to ARTEA data (July 2022), a large part of the 60.000 hectares of vineyard area in Tuscany is attributed to the Chianti (over 17.000 hectares) and Chianti Classico (almost 8.000 hectares) denominations, while 95.8% of the vineyard area is PDO (DOC and DOCG) wines. Of the total 10.600 wineries in Tuscany, 2.191 are located in the province of Siena, almost as many in the province of Grosseto, followed by Arezzo and Florence count 2.000 companies each. There are 16 Cooperative wineries.
Looking at the numbers of the most recent harvest, the 2022 vintage produced over 2.3 million hectoliters of wine. Red wines ruled (87% of the production) and the most prolific denominations were Chianti Classico (269.000 hectoliters), Maremma Toscana (124.000), Brunello di Montalcino (91.000), Morellino di Scansano (72.000), Vino Nobile di Montepulciano (almost 57.000), Bolgheri (47.000). Chianti and its various sub-zones reached 769.000 hectoliters. As far as white wines, only Vernaccia di San Gimignano could compare in terms of quantities produced, at 38.000 hectoliters. The DOCG were much greater in number than the DOC (1.3 million hectoliters against approximately 279.000). PGI wines represented a slice of 655.000 hectoliters and 28% of total production.
Sangiovese is one of the most cultivated vines in Tuscany and is considered the king since it covers almost 60% of the vineyard hills. The International grapes, Merlot (8.3%) and Cabernet Sauvignon (6.4%) follow at a great distance. In fourth place, we find Trebbiano Toscano (3.8%), then Vermentino (3.3%), followed by Syrah, Cabernet Franc, Vernaccia di San Gimignano, Petit Verdot, Chardonnay, Canaiolo Nero, and Ciliegiolo.