162

Percentage increase in wine tourism revenue in Oregon over the last 3 years, according to the Oregon Wine Board. By nearly every measure, the Oregon wine industry is exploding. The average price per ton for grapes is higher than in any other state. The Oregon wine industry’s total economic impact is now over $5.5 billion.

The first cabernet sauvignon vineyard in Tuscany was planted in the Chianti Classico region, where the grape was technically not allowed.

Answer: False.

In 1944, Mario Incisa della Rocchetta planted Tuscany's first cabernet sauvignon vineyard along the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea in a district called Bolgheri, known (until then) for its peach orchards. To plant a cabernet sauvignon vineyard there was, at the time, very unusual. First, the vines were not sangiovese but cabernet (allegedly from Château Lafite Rothschild). Second, Tuscan wisdom at the time held that no great red wine could be made from vineyards close to the sea. And third, the vineyard was far away from the Chianti zone, the brunello town of Montalcino, and the vino nobile town of Montepulciano. However, Incisa della Rocchetta persisted and called the wine Sassicaia—from Tuscan dialect, sasso for "rock"; and aia for "place of." Sassicaia was released commercially in 1968 and made quiet Bolgheri famous for remarkable wines.

“Age gives a wine a sense of beauty and satisfaction that it could never have had before when it was young. In our minds, we intuit that beauty and satisfaction as a feeling of completeness. Because so much of life is incomplete, an old wine is remarkable and moving.”

—Warren Winiarski,
founder of Napa Valley’s Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars

162

Get WineSpeed