Maremma

Maremma is an Italian wine appellation on the Mediterranean coast of southwestern Tuscany.  It is a hundred miles north of Rome saddled between the provinces of Livorno and Grosseto.  The meaning of the name Maremma is disputed.  It either means maritime or it's the Italian version of the Spanish word marismas meaning marshland, which the area was until Mussolini drained it in the 1930s.  Before making it big in the wine business the region was known for its ranches, cowboys and a wild west anything goes mentality.

We discovered Maremma twenty years or so ago when we discovered salinity in wine.  There really is no explanation for salinity in wine except that coastal vineyards have salinity in the air and Maremma has it in spades.  Not surprisingly Maremma has a Mediterranean climate of hot summers and warm winters.  The soils are a mixture of loam and clay and limestone and sand.    

Maremma is a fifteen percent carve out from the entire Tuscan wine appellation.  It includes the Bolgheri wine appellation we posted about a couple months ago.  Here's where things get interesting: This region with its cowboys and ranches felt free enough in the 1940s to break the existing wine laws by bringing in the Bordeaux grape varieties of France, a slap in the face of the domestic wine industry.  The Maremma growers were intent upon competing with Bordeaux and they prevailed with their own Italian version of Bordeaux.  The rest is history.

What were to become known internationally as Super Tuscans, were enjoyed locally for about twenty years before a ground swell of demand expanded their distribution.  In the 1960's they went international, finally hitting our shores around 1980.  It took ten years for the Italian regulators to amend the winemaking laws to allow for this new category and then ten more years before Maremma received its legal appellation DOC (Denominazione di Origine Controllata).

Maremma is home to Ornellia, Masseto, Sassicaia and many others that command prices comparable to most classified Bordeaux.  They are among the finest wines of Italy.  But if you need something to go with your pizza or pasta this weekend modestly priced Super Tuscans can be had here for under twenty dollars.