Val di Cornia, a vineyard with sea view

Val di Cornia valley is on the southern part of the Tuscan coast: it runs from the coast of Piombino and San Vincenzo and, through the first hills of Campiglia Marittima and Suvereto, following the river “Cornia” climbs until the higher ones of Sassetta and Monteverdi Marittimo.
Even if it could be possible to speak about grape culture since etruscan age (the name “populonia” origined by the name “fufluns”, etruscna deity which corresponds to the greek one Dioniso), it was just from the ‘80s that it spurred on by a higher quality wine, wineries pledged to give birth the appellation "DOC Val di Cornia" and also their consortium.
From that moment, there were some changes for the disciplinary. Now in “Val di Cornia” these wine are DOC: white, ansonica, vermentino, rose’, sangiovese, merlot, cabernet sauvignon, ciliegiolo, ansonica passito and aleatico passito. Besides these theer are also DOCG red val di cornia and docg suvereto.
Nowadays Val di Cornia consists in more than 60 wineries and the average dimension increased from 5 ha in the ‘80 to 10-12 ha and, still remaining prevently as family-wineries, were able to organize themselves for facing the international markets.
What remarks “Val di Cornia” as a good place for producing wine is:

- Climate enjoys the beneficial influence of the sea: it’s often windy and temperatures are mild;
- Soils are rich of minerality;
- Vineyards are mostly on (or just next to) hills, surrounded by mediterranean bush and forests.
 

The wines, even produced in the different areas Val di Cornia has, are characterized by the high concentration (due to the low production per hectar) and, in spite of it, mantains considerable balance both for important fenolic maturity and good level of acidity and, for their richness, are extremely lasting and permit to be tasted even after many years.

The consortium was born at the end of the ‘80 and very soon started his activity for promoting the wines. In these 30 years, according to improve the quality, many changes were done and were introduced international kind of grapes which, at the beginning, were not allowed. Nowadays different kinds of wine are produced and some of them are not not in the rules of our disciplinary so can easily find some IGT.

Wines produced in the territory in Val di Cornia:

• Val di Cornia DOC
• Val di Cornia DOCG
• Suvereto DOCG