Italy has complicated and venerable traditions regarding the wine growing regions of Italy, the varietals of grapes grown, and the nature of Italian wines, blended or varietal. Back in the day, Italian wines fell into one of three classifications:

Vino da Tavola (VDT) or "Table wine" in Italian, and it means exactly what it says. This is wine made in Italy from Italian grapes, meant for immediate (or soon thereafter) consumption.

Denominazione di Origine Controllata (DOC) and Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita (DOCG) are used to label Italian wines that are made from specific grapes from specific regions. The DOCG wines must also pass a blind taste test, to certify that they are exactly as described. Both of these labels were created in an effort to draw attention to Italian regional wines, and the quality of Italian wines.

But in the late 1980s Italian wineries and growers (especially in the wine-rich region of Tuscany) began experimenting with wine blends that while quite often traditional and made with top quality grapes, did not meet the specifications of the very tightly controlled regional wines described by DOC and DOCG. One winemaker whose family had been making wine for hundreds of years, Piero Antinori, in the late seventies altered the very traditional blend known as Chianti (officially described as predominantly Sangiovese blended with 10-30% Malvasia and Trebbiano) by substituting the white wine grapes that were a traditional part of the blend with Bordeaux style varietals, notably Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. He named the wine Tignanello, after the vineyard that supplied most of the grapes. Tignanello, although made with high quality grapes and itself a high quality wine, because it did not match the DOC standards, was sold as labeled as an ordinary Vino da Tavola.

Tignanello was dubbed a "Super Tuscan" by wine writers in the 1980s, and soon, other wineries began to experiment as well, creating other "Super Tuscan" style blends. By 1992 the practice was so wide spread, and the new blends so very popular, that in 1992 the Italian wine authority created a new label for such wines; Indicazione Geografica Tipica (IGT). IGT is used for wines that are perceived to be of higher quality than the basic Vino da Tavola, but not the traditional style blends associated so very closely with specific regions. These IGT wines, especially the "Super Tuscans" can fluctuate widely in price and in prestige, based on the winery and the wine-maker.