Super Tuscan describes any Tuscan red wine that does not adhere to traditional blending laws and usually implies a richer more full-bodied wine than the more typical Chianti Classico or Brunello di Montalcino. For example, Chianti Classico uses sangiovese as its
dominant grape, blending it with red grapes of lesser character, like canaiolo and mammolo , and sometimes the two white grapes, malvasia and trebbiano.
In the 1970s Piero Antinori, whose family had been making wine for more than 600 years, decided to make a richer wine by eliminating the white grapes. The result was the first Super Tuscan, which he named Tignanello after the vineyard where the grapes were grown. The following year he added cabernet sauvignon grapes to the blend. Other winemakers started experimenting with Super Tuscan blends of their own shortly thereafter. Because of the low sangiovese content, and the inclusion of non-native grapes like cabernet sauvingnon and merlot, these wines almost never conformed to the requirements of the Chianti DOCG. Therefore they were initially labeled with the plain vino de tavola , or "table wine," which is normally reserved only for the poorest quality. The category of Indicazione Geografica Tipica , which in strictness lies between vino de tavola and the DOCG, was essentially created to bring Super Tuscans "back into the fold" as far as regulation was concerned.