​“Putting the Super in Super Tuscan” was the second session I attended at SommCom in a very, very cold room.  It was about 90 F outside and must have been barely 60 F inside.  Not sure why, but hotel conference rooms are always this way.  Guess they are intent on bringing on global warming….
Anyway, great title for a session if, indeed, one knows what a Super Tuscan wine entails.  I was under the impression that to be a Super Tuscan some of the grapes would have to be Sangiovese.  I was wrong.  According to Wikipedia the first Super Tuscan wines were made from French grape varieties!  Well, I was only a little it wrong.  The first successful Super Tuscan, one that caused a major change in Italian wine regulations, was a blend of Sangiovese and Cabernet Sauvignon. 
Released by Marchese Piero Antinori in 1978, Tignanello, as it was called, was a great hit with the public.  At the time of its released, Italian wine laws were based on the French AOC model.  Groups of wineries in a specific region could get together and agree on a set of criteria for specific wines.  If the government approved, they could label their wines ‘Denominazioni di Origine Controllata” (DOC).  If they went a step further they could add ‘e Garantita’ to the name, shortened to DOCG.  The wines then became controlled and guaranteed by the Italian government.  Tignanello did not meet the DOC or DOCG criteria so was considered a table wine.  Seeing his success, other Italian wine makers released a wide variety of very successful of non-DOC wines.  The demand was such that the Italian government in 1992 added an additional designation, IGT, between table wines and DOC wines into which these Super Tuscans could be put.  Some regulation, but much looser than DOC level. 
As it turns out, Piero’s uncle was the first to start selling “Super Tuscan” wine in 1973 using only French grape varieties from Bordeaux grown in Bolgheri.  The presentation at SommCom reviewed much of this history then introduced us to some of these wines.  I took it as my task to find the Super that they claimed they had put into the wine to make it a Super Tuscan before I froze to death….

​The rest of the first row were similar, as was the one behind it.  But the fifth wine (shown above) tasted very different, much like a Syrah.  Sure enough, it is a Syrah blend, and a good one at that.  Had I found the Super?  Or is the Super what was not in any of the wines, and we were tasting what the Super Tuscans were like without the Super?  After all, the first Super Tuscan to make it big was a blend of Sangiovese and Cabernet Sauvignon.  Or is the Super in Super Tuscan that the Super Tuscan is made from whatever grapes the winemaker wants to use?

My first session on the Monday of SommCom was at 9 am but did not start until 9:20 or so.  The reason given was that the session entailed some blind tasting, calling for wrapping the bottles so the attendees could not tell which was which.  This seemed dubious to me since we were not allowed into the room until the wine was poured (see picture above).  My journalistic instincts in full force, I set out to learn the truth.  And it was quite amazing.
You see, the session was on the Pinot Noir family, with four different members.  I’ve heard it from a totally unreliable source that to emphasize the similarities, they brought in small pots of the four vines.  This got out of control, according to my totally unreliable source, when the plants jumped out of the pots and started dancing and singing a variation of “We Are Family”:
We are family
I got all the pinots with me
We are family
Get up, everybody, and drink
Attempts to quiet the vines were unsuccessful, so they finally removed them and got on with the very informative presentation – with wine.  In addition to great info on the four key family members, the speaker, Alan Tardi, asked us to decide between “old world” wines and “new world” wines.  More on such comparisons at the end of this blog.

​The first grape discussed was Pinot Blanc.  I’m not sure if I had tasted wine made from this grape before, but suffice it to say that it does not make a particularly memorable wine.  As noted in the bad picture of the slide shown below, it does not have the gene that gives Pinot Noir its color.  It appeared sometime in the 14th century.  Got the old/new answer right.

​The second grape was Pinot Gris.  This is a mutation of Pinot Noir that appeared prior to Pinot Gris.  Slide did not say why it does not have the color.  You have certainly tasted Pinot Gris.  You see, this grape made its way to Italy where the name was changed to Pinot Grigio – and the US imports more of it than any other wine.  I missed this one.  Not sure how, but I missed it. 

​Grape number three was Pinot Meunier.  It has tiny white hairs on the leaves, much like I have on my head.  Probably the reason they (allegedly) wanted us to see the vines.  Anyway, the grape appeared about five hundred years ago and is one of three grapes used to make Champagne.  Everyone easily selected the rosy wine as coming from the old world.  Very tasty!

We finally reached one of my favorite grapes, Pinot Noir.  I got this one right as well.  Big curve ball on this one.  Alan chose one wine from a winery in Burgandy and one from a winery in Oregon – with the same owners and the same winemaker!  Perfect comparison between old and new world wines.
Food for thought:  A blind tasting was held in Paris in 1976, an event known as the “Judgement of Paris”.  Seven French judges were asked to rate red (Cabernet Sauvignon) and white (Chardonnay) wines from California and France.  Much to everyone’s surprise, American wines won both competitions.  During the competition, it has been reported that one of the French judges held up a glass with American Chardonnay and declared it to be a great example of French Chardonnay.  In other words, the judges could not tell the difference between old and new world wines…

​Putting together this website is quite a task, involving travelling to many wineries around the world and tasting vast quantities of wine, all without any compensation – well, I do get to drink a lot of wine. Anyway, even for me SommCom San Diego 2025 represented a great effort, as the wine tasting began at 9 am -- on a Monday, no less!  But, as they say, it’s a tough job but someone has to do it….
The conference was held at the Rancho Bernardo Inn in Rancho Bernardo (duh!), the northeast section of San Diego known for red tile roofs and old people.  Quite a beautiful setting.

​The first event that I attended was a welcoming affair held in a garden on a Sunday evening.  Over the next two days I sat in on seven sessions, all of which included wine tasting, and a tasting experience in the conference Exhibit Hall.  Over the next few weeks, I will give you my take on the sessions, hopefully in a coherent fashion, noting that I did imbibe quite a bit of wine….

​The basic structure of the conference required more organization than most conferences in that many of the sessions involved tasting.  Hence, they had to have a good feel for attendance to know how much wine, water, et al., they would need, so you had to sign up in advance.  Your name tag included a code that was scanned much as a ticket before you entered a session room.  Given that much of the tasting involved alcoholic beverages they put your schedule on the back of the name tag.  I found it particularly useful….