Wine Country

"The vineyards produce Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, the austere but elegant red wine to which the town's name is umbilically linked. Wine has been made here since at least the eighth century, possibly earlier, and by the mid‑16th century Montepulciano's lofty reputation was already sealed: Pope Paul III's cellarmaster described it admiringly as "un vino da signori" (a wine for aristocrats). 

Like the town it comes from, Vino Nobile does not dress up to seduce. It's a grown-up, tannic red, with formidable longevity – in fact, unless it was a minor year, you won't get much out of the most recent vintage, despite the fact that when released it has already spent at least two years ageing in wood casks and in the bottle (three in the case of a riserva). Visitors to the numerous wine-tasting cellars that line the Corso and Piazza Grande often come away disappointed, having expected more from the wine, because market logic dictates that what's poured is usually far too young. 

If you are going to be drinking the wine within a year or so of bottling, it's better to opt for a Rosso di Montepulciano – Vino Nobile's feisty and good-value little brother, made from the same grapes but only aged for a brisk six or seven months. Producers who have their hands tied by Vino Nobile's reputation and the strict rules that govern its production get to let their hair down a little with Rosso, and if I'm ordering a bottle in a Montepulciano trattoria, that's what I usually opt for – perhaps one of the gutsy Rossos made by Luigi Frangiosa's one-man winery La Ciarliana, which can give many Vino Nobiles a run for their money but sells at around a third of the price of a riserva. 

Most Montepulciano producers, from big players like Avignonesi and Poliziano to smaller family-run wineries, have outlets in the centro storico. But the one-stop shop for all things wine-related is the information centre of the Strada del Vino Nobile (http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=it&u=http://www.stradavinonobile.it/booking/html/&prev=search) in Piazza Grande, where you can pick up information and book wine tours – well worth signing up for in a territory that eschews the regulated California approach to wine tourism (as satirised in the film Sideways) and is best approached with the help of a local guide who knows the winemakers personally."