ItalianMade

Wines

Appellations

Rosso di Montepulciano (DOC)

ontepulciano stands on a height at the southern extremity of the Chiana Valley in the province of Siena. An ancient legend has it that Montepulciano was founded at the orders of the Etruscan king Porsenna. According to that account, the king quit the town of Chiusi, along with the older community's inhabitants, to settle on the ancient hill of Mons Mercurius, the name of which was later changed to Mons Politicus. From its earliest origins, Montepulciano was linked with wine, as is indicated by a red-figure kylix (wine cup) that was made in the Chiusi area and found in 1868 along with numerous bronze objects in an Etruscan tomb in the vicinity of the Tuscan town. The cup is decorated with the figure of Flufluns, the Etruscan Bacchus or god of wine, who is shown, in company with a maenad, playing cottabos, a game in which drops of wine were flipped at a special target. There are numerous testimonials to the high reputation the wine of Montepulciano enjoyed throughout history. In the 17th century, Francesco Redi, who excelled not only as a physician and naturalist but also as a poet, hymned the joys and qualities of the wine in his poem, Bacco in Toscana, which was published in 1685. In the poem, Redi has Bacchus and Ariadne extol the finest wines of Tuscany and the work concludes with the affirmation that "Montepulciano of every wine is king." The Rosso di Montepulciano DOC was established quite recently and complements that of the Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, from which it is distiguished only in terms of yield per hectare, alcohol level and aging. The production area is exactly the same. The discipline gives individual producers the right to choose one of the two DOCs, depending upon the exposure of his terrains, the climatic situation during the growing season and all the other elements that render the grapes more adapted to the production of one wine rather than the other.

Appellation's     Quality Info     DOC Map     Varieties     Types     Region of     Production     Tuscany     Regional Wines     Regional Foods     Recommended     Food Pairings     CERVELLA IN CARROZZA     CROSTINI CON PROSCIUTTO DI PARMA® E INDIVIA BELGA     FAGIOLI CON LE COTICHE     FRITTO MISTO     INSALATA DI NERVETTI     INVOLTINI DI VITELLO E PROSCIUTTO DI PARMA®     PASTA 'NCASCIATA     PETTI DI POLLO CON SALSA DI CRESCENZA     POLENTA CON FAGIOLI BORLOTTI E CAVOLO     POLLO ALLA DIAVOLA     RIBOLLITA     SPUNTATURE DI MAIALE     TAGLIOLINI AL TARTUFO BIANCO     TESTINA DI CAPRETTO AL FORNO     ZUPPA D’ORZO E PISELLI

HOME INTRO REGIONS FOODS WINES RECIPES LIBRARY GLOSSARY QUIZ

A Wine Primer   Wine & Foods   Quality Laws & Labels   APPELLATIONS   Vintage Charts

Useful Links Contact Us Search TRADE home © The Italian Trade Commission 33 E 67th Street, New York, NY 10065 This page was written by Stefano Milioni. Background image and most photos in this section courtesy of Giuliano Bugialli, all right reserved (see Copyright and Credits).