Tua Rita is a family-owned winery in the northern Maremma, near Livorno in Tuscany, just within view of the Tyrrhenian Sea, in the verdant Val di Cornia. Dark cypresses pierce the heavenly October-blue sky, rows of loaded fermentation vats stand sentinel, barrels from last year’s vintage gently exhale their angel’s share, frog-green oil spills out of the frantoio. This part of Tuscany is, of course, renowned for Super-Tuscans—the luxurious, barrique-aged Bordeaux blends that garnered worldwide acclaim in the 1990s and 2000s and now rival the best wines from Napa, Stellenbosch, and Coonawarra.
The Piombino Channel between Italy and the island of Elba funnels the mistral winds and shelters this section of the coast from storms. In the summer, it is up to 7°F (4°C) warmer here than in Bolgheri 25 miles (40km) to the north, where most of the other famous Super-Tuscans originate. The freshness of the wines is preserved by a high diurnal range, thanks to the Cornia River, which flows down to the sea from the Colline Metallifere, rich in manganese, iron, and other trace elements that constitute the soils here, as well as the rose-colored marble in the vineyards. Tua Rita ranges from 330ft to 1,250ft (100–380m) above sea level, and the clay and calcareous soils, which are drier and less fertile than in Bolgheri, give structure to the wines. When Tua Rita was first established, the vineyards were planted in wide rows, with tighter spacing between vines and a high density of up to 9,000
This Article was originally published on World of Fine Wine