Three Reds from Campo alla Sughera

An authentic expression of Bolgheri DOC

The southwest Tuscan wine region of Bolgheri takes its name from an eponymous hamlet — pop. 131 — in the province of Livorno. The moniker derives from Bulgari, the Italian word for Bulgarians, who about 1,400 years ago were allies of the Lombards and had a military camp there. The area could have pursued its sleepy way as a source of cheap white and rosé wines except for this discovery — that the alluvial soils, the proximity to the coastal influence and the rolling terrain lent it to the cultivation of the classic red Bordeaux varieties — yes, cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, merlot and petit verdot. The rest, as they say, is, well, you know what, but I’ll skip several decades of history to remind you that some of the world’s greatest and most expensive cabernet- and merlot-based wines emanate from estates in Bolgheri, including Sassicaia (Tenuta San Guido); Ornellaia (Tenuta dell’Ornellaia); Ca’Marcanda (Gaia) and Guado al Tasso (Antinori), among the best-known and sought-after.