New Releases from the Tuscan Maremma
BY ANTONIO GALLONI |
My annual report on the Tuscan Maremma takes an in-depth look at wines produced along a vast swath of land on the coast that stretches more than 100 miles (160 kilometers), starting in Grosseto and moving north all the way to Pisa. This expansive region encompasses numerous appellations, each of them quite distinctive. Overall, I was very impressed with the quality of what I tasted.
The Tuscan Maremma: A Deeper Dive
Maremma is a very young viticultural region. Its history in modern times only begins in the early 1970s with the release of the 1968 Sassicaia, a wine Mario Incisa della Rocchetta first created for his own personal consumption. In those days, the coast was a swamp. Noble families lived in the hills, far away from the disease-infested marshlands. Before Sassicaia there was no Maremma from a viticultural and winemaking perspective. Sassicaia’s instant success spurred the growth of an entire industry and birthed a whole group of new wines that went on to achieve their own fame. The rest, as they say, is history, except perhaps that it is worth noting that many estates remain very young from the perspective of vine age.
My annual report on the Tuscan Maremma takes an in-depth look at wines produced along a vast swath of land on the coast that stretches more than 100 miles (160 kilometers), starting in Grosseto and moving north all the way to Pisa. This expansive region encompasses numerous appellations, each of them quite distinctive. Overall, I was very impressed with the quality of what I tasted.
