Teatro Latino Mescà Cabernet Sauvignon and Primitivo Rosso Puglia IGP, Italy

When it comes to the biggest and the boldest reds from Italy, it seems Super Tuscans rule the roost and get all of the love in the winepress. If you love those big, inky, chewy reds — however, you don’t love the price — then mosey on south to Italy’s heel of the boot and check out the wines of Puglia.

In the 1970s, innovative winemakers in Tuscany discovered the magic that resulted when blending indigenous grapes with classic Bordeaux varietals such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Petit Verdot. This unsanctioned union of grapes grew out of the local winemaker’s desire to experiment with the noble French varietals, and expressed their frustration with the strict bureaucratic rules forbidding that action.

The winemakers were determined to express their artistic freedom using grapes of their choosing.  They took the bold step of declassifying their experimental wines to side-step the law, and the result was the birth of what we now know as the Super Tuscan.