Each Friday, David Brenner of Villasfor2 in Abruzzo selects a delicious, top-value 'Everyday Italian Wine' for you to enjoy at home – or on your Abruzzo vacation !

Morellino di Scansano. Cantina del Morellino Co-Op. 2007
This is one of Italy's best-kept wine secrets right now. I'll tell you why in just a moment, but consider first the extraordinary success story of Morellino di Scansano wine. It comes from Tuscany's southern coastal region known as the Maremma, south of the port of Livorno.

Last year it was raised to DOCG status, giving it equal standing – theoretically at least – with heavyweight Tuscan superstars like Chianti Classico, Vino Nobile de Montepulciano and Brunello di Montalcino. The 2007 is Morellino di Scansano's first-ever DOCG vintage. A highly significant moment. But was this released to a fanfare of trumpets and fireworks ? No. It tiptoed silently onto the world's wine stage like an unwilling contestant at a karoake contest. 

So here's the big secret. We have a wine now ranked among the best in Italy. You'd think the producers – the local Cantina Morellino Co-Op – would be be bursting to tell you about it. Except they're not. In fact, their site doesn't seem to have been updated since 2006 and this wine doesn't rate so much as a sideways glance.

Surely then the local consorzio of Morellino di Scansano growers must be a little more up to date ?  Well, no. They mention this wine – but not that it's been promoted from DOC to DOCG status. All very bewildering.

Let's give it a try. Your first question will be whether Morellino di Scansano compares well to its new Tuscan superstar rivals. Unwise to answer on the evidence of a single bottle, from a single producer, in a single year. But it is a very good bottle !

Though it has ageing potential, this is a wine to be drink young too. It's a rich purple in the glass with a wonderful, powerful scent of black cherries. A sip reveals that rich fruit to be undercut with soft tannins, a slight smokiness and a long finish. This is a fine wine for autumn, to be enjoyed with a big antipasti platter of prosciutto crudo, salami, good bread and new season olive oil. And if you like red wine with cheese, this Morellino di Scansano blends perfectly too with a mature peccorino from Sardinia, or a rich, sweet Fontina.

This is simply too good a wine to remain hidden on the shelves for long. You'll find DOCG Chianti in this €5-6 price bracket, but it won't be remotely comparable to this; and as for any other Tuscan DOCGs in this price range – don't even bother looking.

And why is Morellino di Scansano is so little-known ? To be blunt, it comes from a wine-producing backwater, with no prestigious estates; no great historical pedigree; and it seems not much marketing savvy either.  But now that it's got the cachet of a DOCG tag – and once word's got around that it has the in-bottle quality to go with it – this wine's prestige, popularity and – alas – price, will soar. Snap it up while you can.

At A Glance…

• This week's featured wine: Morellino di Scansano
• Vintage: 2007
• Producer: Cantina del Morellino Co-Op
• Designation: DOCG
• Grape: 85% Sangiovese; 10% Canaiolo; 5% Cillegino
• Strength: 13%
• Closure: Cork
• This bottle cost: €5.49

Click on the pictures in the text for larger images, and if you like Italian wine, why not check out last week's 'Everyday Italian Wine' – a good pink from Puglia – and bookmark this site for future weekly posts.

Next Week: Asti Spumante – another of Italy's favourite fizzers. Forget the 'cover versions' you might have tried. This is the real DOCG deal for you to enjoy at home – or on your Villasfor2 Abruzzo vacation !

This entry was posted on Friday, October 10th, 2008 at 3:25 am and is filed under David's 'Everyday Italian Wine', Eating and Drinking, Vineyards. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.