Tuscany
Central Italy is the biggest of the zones and consists of Tuscany, the Marches, the Abruzzi, Molise, Lazio and Umbria. Tuscany is on the other side of the Appenines from Emilia Romagna and is a beautiful mountainous region, with olive trees, vines and cypress trees all populate the hillsides. The twin jewels of Tuscany are Florence and Siena and they mark the most northerly and southerly parts of the Chianti Zone. The common thread running through Tuscany from Lucca down to the Marches is the Sangiovese grape in its many different guises from Chianti through to Brunello di Montalcino, Morellino di Scansano and then blended with Montepulciano to make Rosso Piceno. Tuscany includes the little DOCG of Carmignano to the north of Florence, which then gives way to Chianti, with its seven different zones (refer to our sub-regions of Chianti Classico and Chianti Rufina), which in turn moves through to Montalcino (refer to our sub-zone of Montalcino) to the south of Siena and Vino Nobile di Montepulciano to the east. On the Tyrrhenian coast, the sub-regions of the Maremma and Bolgheri are located on low, flat land with rich soils. Bolgheri is best known for its famous cypress avenue, Sassicaia, Ornellaia and now for the Allegrini owned estate of Poggio al Tesoro.
