Vernaccia di San Gimignano DOCG

Vernaccia di San Gimignano DOCG is dry white wine made from 90-100% of the Vernaccia di San Gimignano grape grown around the touristy, multi-towered commune of San Gimignano in the north-west of Siena province in Tuscany, Italy. Up to 10% other non-aromatic white grapes (eg. Chardonnay, but not Sauvignon Blanc) authorized for Tuscany are permitted. Vernaccia di San Gimignano DOCG Riserva (see here for a list of wineries making Riserva) must age in oak for one year, a stipulation Ian D’Agata (2014) feels can make the wines too oaky. Other wines made in the San Gimignano production zone include San Gimignano Rosso DOC, Chianti DOCG, and Chianti Colli Senesi DOCG.

San Gimignano: 2009 Vintage: 768 hectares (1,900 acres) in production.

San Gimignano: 2010 Vintage

San Gimignano: 2011 Vintage

San Gimignano: 2012 Vintage:Very dry growing season.

San Gimignano: 2013 Vintage

San Gimignano: 2014 Vintage

San Gimignano 2015 vintage: 730 hectares (1,800 acres) produced 41,000hl of wine, 9% lower compared to 2014. Very hot in June and the beginning of August. Then alternate periods of rain and sun, with cool nights. Harvest began in the third week of September. Potentially promising.

San Gimignano 2016 vintage: 2016 was a very good year with a regular growing season. The wines have balanced acidity.

San Gimignano 2017 vintage: The 2017 vintage produced 31,651 hl of Vernaccia di San Gimignano DOC from 720 hectares (1,778 acres). The 2017 growing season was defined by two climatic events. Winter was cold, especially so in January when average temperatures were half those of the previous two years. However, winter was also dry, and this, coupled with hot, dry, sunny weather in March brought budburst forward. Shoot growth began in the last ten days of March, 15 days ahead of the norm. On 19th-20 April 2017 a sharp drop in temperature caused crop losses of up to 30-40% in the worst cases, particularly in vineyards on lower-lying sites. Dry weather in May allowed affected vineyards a second chance to produce vegetative growth, although with fewer flowers and thus potential grapes. Sunny and very dry weather followed, with only one rain storm of note on 8th August. Vine stress was a potential issue leading to ripe and unripe berries on the same bunch. The result was yields were down 26% compared to 2016.

Vernaccia di San Gimignano Riserva 2017 wines are generally very powerful, with higher than usual alcohol levels, and bigger than normal structure.

In my report for the 2018 Decanter World Wine Awards blind tasting competition (for which I was Tuscany Chair) I wrote ‘Vernaccia di San Gimignano is often labelled as nothing more than a refreshing dry white to be quaffed by tourists ogling the town’s looming towers. But San Gimignano was one of the few smaller Tuscan regions to pick up medals in nearly all price categories, from every day wines to super-premium.’

San Gimignano 2018 vintage. 2018 was a good to very good quality vintage, a return to normal, after the climatic oddities of recent years: it was cold at the right time, it rained enough to restore water reserves (abundantly in the first seven months of 2018, when 586.5 mm of rain fell compared to 532.42mm in the whole of 2017). For the producers this was a challenge, eg. from downy mildew (peronospora). Spring and summer recorded average temperatures with dry heat and refreshing rains.

The main vegetative phases of the vines were also normal in 2018 thanks to a slightly capricious seasonal trend: the region had a real winter, which started early with the months of November (2017) and December (2017), cold and rainy more than average, a fairly mild and always rainy January. There followed a very cold February, with two snowfalls in the last 10 days, and a month of March that was initially very rainy and then again very cold.

Spring arrived in mid-April with a marked increase in temperatures and stable weather: in the vineyard a good and regular expulsion of the ributti begins. May was variable and rather rainy, with temperatures often lower than normal; only in the third decade there is stable weather and the rise in temperatures, which trigger an excellent flowering of the Vernaccia di San Gimignano vines, followed by an equally excellent fruit set in the first ten days of June, despite the weather having changed again.

The alternation of sunny and rainy days provided favorable conditions for the development of peronospera outbreaks, which at the beginning of the summer forced producers to carry out above-average interventions, especially in the Sangiovese vineyards.

From July the weather became stable and sunny, there was only a thunderstorm in the middle of the month and then the temperatures rose above average. August continued with high temperatures and some thunderstorms which, especially in the third decade, became intense and frequent. Harvest began around 20th September (a normal time).

San Gimignano produced 39,600hl in 2018 which is average in volume but up 25% on the drought 2017 vintage (which was down 26.8% on Vernaccia production). The 2018 harvest came from 720 hectares of vineyards for Vernaccia di San Gimignano. There were around 170 producers in the San Gimignano area, 70 of whom bottle and sell their wine under their own brand.

Of 1,900 ha of vines in total in San Gimignano, 720ha were destined for Vernaccia di San Gimignano (as mentioned above), 450 destined for San Gimignano DOC, and 730 destined for IGT, Chianti DOCG and Chianti Colli Senesi DOCG.

2018 Vernaccia di San Gimignano DOCG wines have a lower alcohol content than in recent years, while acidity and structure depend on the harvest date. Those that come from grapes harvested in the first half of September are lighter, fresher and more acidic, those of the second half of the month have more structure.

The high potential yields of 2018 Vernaccia allowed producers the economic room to discard sub-standard fruit.

DOC, DOCG status

Vernaccia di San Gimignano was first granted its DOC in 1966, the first for wine in Italy. In 1993 the Vernaccia di San Gimignano DOC was elevated to DOCG status, with the following reasons being given:

i) Vernaccia di San Gimignano could prove that it was unique;
ii) this strain of the Vernaccia grape is grown nowhere else in Italy (it seems, although see Piccabòn);
iii) the wine has been documented by name since the C13th, the legend being that the vine was brought here from the East by the merchant Perone Peroni, for the vineyards of Pietrafitta;
iv) the wine comes from a single commune.

History: Vernaccia is mentioned by Dante Alighieri (Purgatorio XXIV) as leading to Pope Martin IV’s gluttony. It was the only wine name-checked by Dante. Vernaccia was also praised by Francesco Redi in his work, “Baccio in Toscana. Michelangelo was another Vernaccia lover.

Size: The surface area of the Municipality of San Gimignano is about 12,500 hectares, 5,600 of which are given to farming (vineyards, olive groves, cereal crops).

Terroir: The vineyards are predominantly on sloping ground, with variable exposures, altitudes, soil compositions and availability of water. The town lies at 300m. Altitudes range from 67 to 500 metres (220-1,640 feet) above sea level. Most vineyards lie at altitudes of between 200 and 400m above sea level. The highest vineyards belong to Montenidoli (450m, the Triassic vineyard), Fattoria San Donato (400m), and Macinatico (360m).

Soils: The production rules for Vernaccia di San Gimignano stipulate ‘only hilly terrain, with good exposure, located at an altitude not exceeding 500 m a.s.l. is to be considered suitable, and whose soils, of Pliocene origin, are made up of yellow sands and sandy clays.

Mainly yellow-coloured sandstone (tuff) and yellow or grey clays from the Pliocene (6.8 to 1.8 million years old) on marine deposits rich in fossils and often layered over more compact clays present deep down. The soils are strongly characterised by the presence of sand and have almost no heavy stone at all, they are loose and therefore allow vines to put down deep roots. The soils are usually poor in organic substance and are well drained thanks to the sand. It is this sand, tuff, that is the characterising pedological element from the winegrowing-oenological point of view, due to the savoury flavour that it conveys to the wines that originate in it.

The steepness of the slopes and exposures to the sun vary. The zone is roughly halfway between the Tyrrhenian Sea to the west and the Apennine mountains to the east. ‘Well exposed hills of light, almost chalky beige to grey soils where calcareous clays and tufa prevail. Warmer slopes towards the Elsa valley [east of San Gimignano] where marine deposits make a difference,’ (Burton Anderson, 1990, p.198).

Climate: Mediterranean climate with rather dry summers, not particularly harsh winters and rainfall concentrated in two periods: April/May and November. Annual rainfall is around 700mm (27 inches) Temperatures vary from -5°C to +37°C. The area benefits from good ventilation all year round and only rarely is it cloaked in fog.

Vintages & wine production data: See: 2020. | 2019. | 2018. | 2017. | 2016. | 2015. | 2014. | 2013. | 2012. | 2011. | 2010. | 2009. | 2008. | 2003. | 2002. | 1990. | 1980.

Winemaking: Old-style Vernaccia was fermented on the skins to beef it up and given oak ageing in order to develop subtle oxidative notes.

Typical flavours: Apricot, ‘attractively bitter finish’ (Daniel Thomases, 2006), ‘beeswax with age’ (Walter Speller, 2015), bitter almonds, bland, bready, buttery, citrus, creamy, crisp, ‘dry, variable and generally underwhelming’ (Oz Clarke 2015, p.272), flinty, floral, full-bodied, green apple, herby, lemon oil, lemon peel, lime, liquorice, nutty, orange peel, pale, phenolic, refreshing, salty-saline, spritzy, tangy, varnish, ‘violets that recall Sangiovese’ (Richard Baudains, 1992).

Food pairings: Locally the typical food for Vernaccia is wild rabbit, chicken or fish.

Markets: 2019 In 2019 the Consorzio said that 42% of all sales in Italy were in San Gimignano itself, 19% of which was via direct sale from wineries.

Wineries

Consorzio

Consorzio del Vino Vernaccia di San Gimignano

Via di Fugnano, 19

I-53037 San Gimignano (SI), Italy

Tel+39 0577 940108 | Website: www.vernaccia.it/Home-eng

Bibliography

Burton Anderson, The Wine Atlas of Italy (Mitchell Beazley, 1990).

Daniel Thomases in the Oxford Companion to Wine 3rd edition ed. Jancis Robinson MW (Oxford University Press, 2006), p.732.

Dr Ian d’Agata, Native Wine Grapes of Italy (University of California Press, 2014), p.153-5.

Italian Wine Unplugged (Positive Press, 2017), p.74.

Oz Clarke, Oz Clarke Wine A-Z (Pavilion, 2015).

Richard Baudains, ‘Theme and Variations’, Decanter July 1992, p.54.

Walter Speller in the Oxford Companion to Wine 4th edition ed. Jancis Robinson MW and Julia Harding MW (Oxford University Press, 2015), p.780.