Tuscany Comes of Age

Anchored by the 2021 vintage, Tuscan reds set a new standard of quality

- Bruce Sanderson

The 2021 vintage establishes a new benchmark for the wines of Tuscany. It is the best vintage to date across this central Italian region, with many new releases reaching levels of excellence not seen before. The top wines combine freshness with ripe fruit, elegance and tension, backed by the structure to evolve beautifully over the next two decades or more.

A cooler year among the string of fine harvests over the past decade, 2021 saw a combination of factors contribute to its success. After an early start to the growing season, with frost in some areas that reduced yields slightly, the vintage experienced near-perfect weather that stretched from veraison all the way to a later-than-usual harvest, fostering ideal phenolic maturity in the grapes, particularly Sangiovese and Cabernet Sauvignon.

But the growing season is only part of the story. The vintage also represents the culmination of decades of investment by producers in their winemaking practices, with additional technical knowledge and experience to manage the best possible outcome. A paradigm shift toward more precise, elegant wines has coincided with a range of changes in the vineyard and cellar—including new clones, rootstocks, fermenting vessels and aging barrels, along with adjustments to planting density, canopy management and cover crops—to take advantage of the benevolent conditions in 2021.