Teodoro 2019

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One of my absolute favourite stories around wine is the origin of the super Tuscans as I often puzzle customers at the shop by showing the price difference between a Chianti which obviously holds the DOCG stamp and a super Tuscan which does not have it.

At a wine fair I once heard that German customers love stamps on wines. DOC, Organic, Demeter, Parker points, golden medal at the Berlin, Brussels, Paris Fair, you name it. Even though I often have a problem on generalizing people's behaviours,  this time I am forced to agree. I do not know how many times customers ask me whether a certain wine is organically certified. Whether it has won any prize or how many points it has scored by any relevant critic.

When coming to Italian wines, I am often confronted with two major questions:

what do I think about Maroni's point system; and does the wine have a DOCG certificate.

About the first I am not going to make any comments for now and the DOCG seems to have a bigger quality value to the customers than the IGT and that makes it really hard to sell it to someone who is not into the whole story behind it. 

If that is your case, I can only recommend this article by Wine Searcher which offers a full contextualization. 

 Going to this Teodoro, which belongs to the assortment we have in the shop where I work, it is dominated by Sangiovese which brings some freshness and present and lively tannins which get softened by the dense perfume of Merlot. With a tremendous and elegant body, you can find berry notes, Mediterranean herbs with a small hint of tobacco leaves indicating a ripening potential that should not be overestimated. 

In fact, I have to confess that I may have drunk this wine too early as some more maturation will surely bring some more complexity and fascination to it. Fortunately, I do have a second bottle of it in my basement as this is a wine that I really want to get back to in a couple of years as I think the whole experience I have just had will be reinvigorated. 

You have never tried a super Tuscan or are afraid of its lack of "classification", do not worry. It resides solely on the fact that the producer has used non-authoctonous Italian grapes which, in this case, gives a new dimension and depth to the wines and it is definitely more than worth a try.


16/20
Country: Italy  
Region: Tuscany
Grapes: Sangiovese, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon
14,5%
Winemaker: Simone Santini

Website: http://www.tenutalecalcinaie.com/teodoro.html

 




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