The 80s: Italy’s Wine Revolution Begins

The 80s was a pivotal decade for the Italian wine industry. It showed the world what the “cognoscenti” already knew; that Italy could produce world class wines that could stand toe to toe with any wines in the world. Wines such as Conterno’s Monfortino barolo, Gaja’s Sori Tilden barbaresco, and Fontodi’s Flaccianella were making global strides in bringing Italy to the forefront of the world’s best wines. These wines made it clear to all that who tasted, that Italy could grow grapes native to its soil that merited the attention of the international wine scene. Many shrugged off these “limited success stories” by saying that any great vintage could produce these wines with a bit of luck. However, it did not take a genius to realize that these classics showed a depth of character, a level of class, and a sense of place that had the potential to grow into international icons. And this was no fluke or freak of nature. The producers of these wines and many others traveled the world to observe what other world class producers were doing in the vineyards to grow healthier grapes. They invested in the best new equipment that would produce the wines they desired. They studied winemaking techniques in foreign cellars that they could apply back home. They studied their own wineries’ notes, however limited, that their parents had scripted to see what they could improve on and what should not be touched. These producers did their homework and made sacrifices early on because they had a vision. They believed their hard work and rigorous study would pay off in the bottle and it did, even in poorer vintages that would have previously yielded undrinkable wines. By the late 80s, the top growers in the zone were not afraid to give “the eye” to their neighbors that continued to pride themselves on making mediocre wine.

While the beginning of this revolution was moving forward, the government’s wine laws that were supposed to “guarantee” a wine’s quality, were being called into question by the growers themselves. The laws were established to set guidelines for production yields, mandate grape and aging requirements, and define geographic growing limits for certain areas. However, these “quality guarantee” laws soon became just another reason for many producers to charge more money for the same old stuff.

Let’s take a look at chianti classico, one of the more well known DOCG appellations, and one that is subject to fairly stringent laws. When the laws for chianti classico proved too confining for the more creative growers in the historic zone, producers started making wines called “SuperTuscans”, which allowed the producers to work around the chianti classico laws and make wines they deemed more interesting. Most of these new creations were wines that were based on or contained a large percentage of grapes other than sangiovese (usually cabernet sauvignon or merlot) and used smaller aging vessels such as “barrique” imported from France and Slavonia. As long as the wineries did not label these new-jack wines chianti classico, there was no violation of the law. Many SuperTuscans received grand praise from the international press and foreign wine community. Seeing big dollar signs (or Lira signs as it were), droves of producers were quickly inspired to craft their own SuperTuscans. Regrettably, however, many chianti classico producers started taking their best grapes and using them as the base for their SuperTuscans. This “shift of attention” dropped the overall quality of many chianti classicos thus affecting the overall image of the chianti classico name.

However, producers such as Fontodi and Isole e Olena did not miss a beat and continued to show the world that they could not only make chianti classico “by the book” that merited serious attention but also SuperTuscans that could be just as impressive when made with 100% sangiovese. By the end of the 80s, chianti classico began to fall out of favor and consumers, with a lot of help from the international press, starting paying more attention to SuperTuscans instead. Consumers paid through the nose for wines that, with some understanding by the local Italian government, could have been chianti classicos all along! By the end of the 80s, the world press had recognized a handful of Italian producers from Tuscany and Piedmont for making distinctive and noteworthy wines; wines that also fetched a lot of money. This was motivation enough for many more producers to want to share in the spotlight.