The wines of Tuscany range from the very ordinary to the truly sublime. In part this is because the area of Tuscany that has been delimited as wine-growing is large and very varying in climate and topography. Along the Tyrhennian coast from north of Rome to almost Livorno, inland past Florence right over to Arezzo, Tuscany is a large wine-producing part of Italy.

The most radiant stars in its classical constellation of wines are Brunello di Montalcino, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano and the Vernaccia di San Gimignano. Chiantis, as most people will have discovered, are some of the most variable wines on the planet, ranging from the thin, tart little wines of the Colle Pisane to the great names of Chianti Rufina and Chianti Classico. Towards the latter part of the last century new and exciting wines began to be made in Tuscany. The Marchesi Antinori began the trend with Tignanello in 1971, a wine made from the local Cannaiolo and San Giovese grapes, but with the novel addition of Cabernet Sauvignon. Very quickly it was acknowledged as an aristocrat among the Tuscan reds. More wineries followed this trend - Ornellaia, Sassicaia and Sammarco, all of them forced at first to label the wine 'table wine', since the original DOC legislation had made no provision for the Cabernet Sauvignon grape.

It's clear that in Tuscany red wine rules. This has always been the case, but in the mid 1980s some major producers like Antinori, Frescobaldi and Ricasoli got together to establish a new Tuscan white, Galestra. Apart from new intitiatives like this to establish white wines, there has always been a limited production. One exception is the Vernaccia di San Gimignano which has been around for a while - it was famously priased by Michelangelo's son in 1643. It's unusual among the Tuscan whites in that it contains no Trebbiano or Malvasia, its grape variety is the eponymous Vernaccia, which seemingly has no connection with the Sardinian grape of the same name. Traditionally it had a bronze tint, a result of oxidisation during fermentation and wooden barrels later. In the last few decades the style has been gradually changing away from the slightly bitter, woody flavour to a much more agreeable wine - straw yellow in colour, fresh, smooth and dry.

Wine of the Week

Vernaccia di San Gimignano 2001 DOCG

San Gimignano is a historic Tuscan hill-town, famous not just for its wine, but for its towers. Mediaeval merchant families vied with one other to build the tallest tower and today the town is almost like a film set - crowded with camera-carrying tourists by day and largely empty by night. It is of course preposterously beautiful, and sitting in its tiny principal piazza with the Priapic towers all around is a perfect place for sipping its wine. Best drunk young, in its second or third year, it's a good accompaniment to fish and to white meats.

Available O'Brien's Off-licenses, RRP €11.49