Choice of:

• Four-Hour Wine Tour Limo Rental for Up to 6
• Six-Hour Wine Tour Limo Rental for Up to 8
• Six-Hour Wine Tour Limo Rental for Up to 10
• Six-Hour Wine Tour Sprinter Rental for Up to 12
• Six-Hour Wine Tour Party Bus Rental for Up to 16
• Six-Hour Wine Tour Party Bus Rental for Up to 18

Includes:

• Two bottles of champagne
• Ice and water

Super Tuscans: Wine Outside the Law

Super Tuscans are often thought of as special-occasion wines, but they’re available at points all along the price scale. Find out what makes them super with Groupon’s brief history of the form.

If you’re not sure what makes for a super Tuscan wine—beyond its red color and bold taste—you could blame the Italian government. In the 1970s, Tuscan winemakers were running into problems marketing their wine within the strict legal code that protects one of the country’s finest exports. Some of their vineyards fell a little outside the strictly defined borders of the chianti wine region, and other vintners wanted to enhance the sangiovese grapes that make up the bulk of chianti with other, nontraditional varietals. Doing so, however, would mean that their wines would have to be labeled as vino da tavola, or table wine. It hardly conveyed the prestige of bottles that, today, can command well over $100. To separate their carefully crafted new blends from the pack, the winemakers invented the name super Tuscans. The label caught on so quickly within the wine community that some winemakers have preferred not to apply for official chianti certification.

Super Tuscans vary greatly by vineyard, as they represent winemakers’ individual interpretations of Tuscan wine—a flexibility that’s drawn comparisons to the infinitely variable blends of bordeaux. A trio of sangiovese, cabernet sauvignon, and merlot is one very common blend, but syrah, cabernet franc, and other grapes from Italy and the rest of Europe may also join the harmony of flavors.