Keeping up with the Jones’s in Bolgheri

Not so long ago the Maremma, the coastal strip that runs south of Livorno all the way down to Lazio, was Tuscany’s Wild West, populated by mosquitoes and longhorn cattle of the Maremmana breed tended by Italy’s own version of cowboys. This wild and rugged coastline became the unlikely birthplace of one of Italy’s most admired wines, Sassicaia, a red based on Bordeaux varieties that excelled on a small outcrop of gravelly soil just above this flat coastal area near the village of Bolgheri. (Our picture shows the famous Viale dei Cipressi that runs up to Bolgheri from the coast.)...