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From
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Chianti is a red Italian wine produced in
Tuscany. It was historically associated with a
squat bottle enclosed in a straw basket, called
a fiasco ("flask"; pl. fiaschi); however, the
fiasco is only used by a few makers of the wine
now; most Chianti is bottled in traditionally
shaped wine bottles. Baron Bettino Ricasoli
(later Prime Minister in the Kingdom of Italy)
created the Chianti recipe of 70% Sangiovese,
15% Canaiolo and 15% Malvasia bianca in the
middle of the 19th century.
A Fiasco - traditional bottle for some
Chianti wines
The first definition of a wine-area called
Chianti was made in 1716. It described the area
near the villages of Gaiole,
Castellina and
Radda; the so-called Lega del Chianti and later
Provincia del Chianti (Chianti province). In
1932 the Chianti area was completely re-drawn
and divided in seven sub-areas: Classico, Colli
Aretini, Colli Fiorentini, Colline Pisane, Colli
Senesi, Montalbano and Rùfina. Most of the
villages that in 1932 were suddenly included in
the new Chianti Classico area added in Chianti
to their name-such as
Greve in Chianti which
amended its name in 1972.
Wines labeled Chianti Classico come from the
biggest sub-area of Chianti, that sub-area that
includes the old Chianti area. The other
variants, with the exception of Rufina from the
north-east side of Florence and Montalbano in
the south of Pistoia, originate in the
respective named provinces:
Siena for the Colli
Senesi, Florence for the Colli Fiorentini,
Arezzo for the Colli Aretini and
Pisa for the
Colline Pisane. In 1996 part of the Colli
Fiorentini sub-area was renamed Montespertoli.
See:
VisitsItaly.com - Wine Tours
And:
The Wine Roads of Italy
During the 1970s producers started to reduce the
quantity of white grapes in Chianti. In 1995 it
became legal to produce a Chianti with 100%
Sangiovese. For a wine to retain the name of
Chianti, it must be produced with at least 80%
Sangiovese grapes.
A Chianti may have a picture of a black rooster
(known in Italian as a gallo nero) on the neck
of the bottle, which indicates that the producer
of the wine is a member of the "Gallo Nero"
Consortium; an association of producers of the
Classico sub-area sharing marketing costs.
Since 2005 the black rooster has been the emblem
of the Chianti Classico producers association.
Aged Chianti (38 months instead of 4-7), may be
labeled as Riserva. Chianti that meets more
stringent requirements (lower yield, higher
alcohol content and dry extract) may be labeled
as Chianti Superiore. Chianti from the
"Classico" sub-area is not allowed in any case
to be labeled as "Superiore".
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History
The earliest documentation of a "Chianti wine"
dates back to the 13th century when viticulture
was known to flourish in the "Chianti Mountains"
around Florence. The merchants in the nearby
townships of
Castellina, Gaiole and Radda formed
the Lega del Chianti (League of Chianti) to
produce and promote the local wine. In 1398,
records note that the earliest incarnation of
Chianti was as a white wine.
In 1716 Cosimo III de' Medici, Grand Duke of
Tuscany issued an edict legislating that the
three villages of the Lega del Chianti as well
as the village of Greve and a 2 mile (3 km)
hillside north of Greve near Spedaluzza as the
only officially recognized producers of Chianti.
This delineation existed until the 1930s when
the Italian government expanded the zone.
Subsequent expansions throughout the 20th
century would eventually bring the Chianti zone
to cover almost all of Tuscany. The original
zone dictated by the edict of Cosimo III de'
Medici would eventually be considered the heart
of the Chianti Classico region.
The Italian statesman Bettino Ricasoli developed
the first "modern" Chianti recipe that was
Sangiovese based.By the 18th century, Chianti
was widely recognized as a red wine, but the
exact composition and grape varieties used to
make Chianti at this point is unknown.
Ampelographers find clues about which grape
varieties were popular at the time in the
writings of Italian writer Cosimo Villifranchi
who noted that Canaiolo was widely planted
variety in the area along with Sangiovese,
Mammolo and Marzemino. It was not until the work
of the Italian statesman Bettino Ricasoli that
the modern "Chianti recipe" as a
Sangiovese-based wine would take shape.
Prior to Ricasoli, Canaiolo was emerging as the
dominant variety in the Chianti blend with
Sangiovese and Malvasia playing supporting
roles. In the mid-19th century, Ricasoli
developed a recipe for Chianti that was based
primarily on Sangiovese. His recipe called for
70% Sangiovese, 15% Canaiolo, 10% Malvasia
(later amended to include Trebbiano) and 5%
other local red varieties. In 1967, the
Denominazione di origine controllata (DOC)
regulation set by the Italian government firmly
established the "Ricasoli formula" of a
Sangiovese-based blend with 10-30% Malvasia and
Trebbiano.
The late 19th century saw a period of economic
and political upheaval. First came oidium and
then the phylloxera epidemic would take it toll
on the vineyards of Chianti just as they had
ravaged vineyards across the rest of Europe. The
chaos and poverty following the Risorgimento
heralded the beginning of the Italian diaspora
that would take Italian vineyard workers and
winemakers abroad as immigrants to new lands.
Those that stayed behind and replanted choose
high-yielding varieties like Trebbiano and
Sangiovese clones such as the Sangiovese di
Romagna from the nearby Romagna region.
Following World War II, the general trend in the
world wine market for cheap, easy-drinking wine
saw a brief boom for the region. With
over-cropping and an emphasis on quantity over
quality, the reputation of Chianti among
consumers eventually plummeted. By the 1950s,
Trebbiano (which is known for its neutral
flavors) made up to 30% of many mass-market
Chiantis.
By the late 20th century, Chianti was often
associated with basic Chianti sold in a squat
bottle enclosed in a straw basket, called a
fiasco. However, during the same period, a group
of ambitious producers began working outside the
boundaries of DOC regulations to make what they
believed would be a higher quality style of
Chianti. These wines eventually became known as
the "Super Tuscans".
Many of the producers behind the Super Tuscan
movement were originally Chianti producers who
were rebelling against what they felt were
antiquated DOC regulations. Some of these
producers wanted to make Chiantis that were 100%
varietal Sangiovese. Others wanted the
flexibility to experiment with blending French
grape varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon and
Merlot or to not be required to blend in any
white grape varieties.
The late 20th century saw a flurry of creativity
and innovation in the Chianti zones as producers
experimented with new grape varieties and
introduced modern winemaking techniques such as
the use of new oak barrels. The prices and wine
ratings of some Super Tuscans would regularly
eclipse those of DOC sanctioned Chiantis. The
success of the Super Tuscans encouraged
government officials to reconsider the DOC
regulations in order to bring some of these
wines back into the fold labeled as Chianti.
Wine regions within the Chianti
Chianti wine area within TuscanyThe Chianti
region covers a vast area of Tuscany and
includes within its boundaries several
overlapping Denominazione di origine controllata
(DOC) and Denominazione di Origine Controllata e
Garantita (DOCG) regions. Other well known
Sangiovese-based Tuscan wines such as Brunello
di Montalcino and Vino Nobile di Montepulciano
could be bottled and labeled under the most
basic designation of "Chianti" if their
producers chose to do so.
Click on map to open for larger image
Within the collective Chianti region more than 8
million cases of wines classified as DOC level
or above are produced each year. Today, most
Chianti falls under two major designations of
Chianti DOCG, which includes basic level
Chianti, as well as that from seven designated
sub-zones, and Chianti Classico DOCG.
Together, these two Chianti zones produce the
largest volume of DOC/G wines in Italy.
Chianti Classico
In 1716 Cosimo III de' Medici, Grand Duke of
Tuscany issued an edict legislating that the
three villages of the Lega del Chianti
(Castellina in Chianti, Gaiole in Chianti, and
Radda in Chianti) as well as the village of
Greve and a 2-mile (3-km) stretch of hillside
north of Greve near Spedaluzza as the only
officially recognized producers of Chianti. This
delineation existed until July 1932, when the
Italian government expanded the Chianti zone to
include the outlying areas of Barberino Val
d'Elsa, Chiocchio, Robbiano, San Casciano in Val
di Pesa and Strada. The 1932 expansion was
canonized into DOC regulations in 1966.
Since the mid 1980s, the Chianti Classico zone
has had it own DOCG recognized area separate
from the greater Chianti region. As of 2006,
there were 17,640 acres (7,142 hectares) of
vineyards in the Chianti Classico region.
The Chianti Classico region covers an area of
approximate 100 square miles (259 square
kilometers) between the city of Florence to the
north and Siena to the south. The four communes
of
Castellina
in Chianti in Chianti, Gaiole in Chianti,
Greve in Chianti and Radda in Chianti are
located entirely within the boundaries of the
Classico region with parts of Barberino Val
d'Elsa, San Casciano in Val di Pesa and
Tavarnelle Val di Pesa in the province of
Florence as well as Castelnuovo Berardenga and
Poggibonsi in the province of Siena included
within the permitted boundaries of Chianti
Classico.
The soil and geography of this region can be
quite varied, with altitudes ranging from 820
feet (250 meters) to 2000 feet (610 meters), and
rolling hills producing differing macroclimates.
There are two main soil types in the region: a
weathered sandstone known as albarese and a
bluish-gray chalky marlstone known as galestro.
The soil in the north is richer and more fertile
with more galestro, with the soil gradually
becoming harder and stonier with more albarese
in the south. In the north, the Arno river can
have an influence on the climate, keeping the
temperatures slightly cooler, an influence that
diminishes further south in the warmer Classico
territory towards Castelnuovo Berardenga.
Regional differences
Vineyards in Gaiole in Chianti in the Chianti
Classico region Chianti Classico wines tend to be
medium-bodied with firm tannins and medium-high
to high acidity. Floral, cherry and light nutty
notes are characteristic aromas with the wines
expressing more notes on the mid-palate and
finish than at the front of the mouth. As with
Bordeaux, the different regions of Chianti
Classico have unique characteristics that can be
exemplified and perceived in some wines from
those areas. According to Master of Wine Mary
Ewing-Mulligan, Chianti Classico wines from the
Castellina region tend to have a very delicate
aroma and flavor, Castelnuovo Berardegna region
wines tend to be the most ripe and richest
tasting, wines from Gaiole tend to have be
characterized by their structure and firm
tannins while wines from the Greve area tend to
have very concentrated flavors.
Chianti Wine Designations
The Chianti DOCG covers all the Chianti wine and
includes a large stretch of land encompassing
the western reaches of the province of Pisa near
the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea, the Florentine
hills in the province of Florence to the north,
to the province of Arezzo in the east and the
Siena hills to the south. Within this regions
are vineyards that overlap the DOCG regions of
Brunello di Montalcino, Vino Nobile di
Montepulciano and Vernaccia di San Gimignano.
Any Sangiovese-based wine made according to the
Chianti guideline from these vineyards can be
labeled and marked under the basic Chianti DOCG
should the producer wish to use the designation.
Within the Chianti DOCG there are eight defined
sub-zones, that are permitted to affix their
name to the wine label. Wines that are labeled
as simply Chianti are made either from a blend
from these sub-zones or include grapes from
peripheral areas not within the boundaries of a
sub-zone. The sub-zones are (clockwise from the
north): the Colli Fiorentini which is located
south of the city of Florence; Chianti Rufina in
the northeastern part of the zone located around
the commune of Rufina; Classico in the center of
Chianti, across the provinces of Florence and
Siena; Colli Aretini in the Arezzo province to
the east; Colli Senesi south of Chianti Classico
in the Siena hills, this is the largest of the
sub-zones and includes the Brunello di
Montalcino and Vino Nobile di Montepulciano
areas; Colline Pisane the westernmost sub-zone
in the province of Pisa; Montespertoli located
within the Colli Fiorentini around the commune
of Montespertoli ; Montalbano in the northwest
part of the zone which includes the Carmignano
DOCG.
As of 2006, there were 786 acres (318 hectares)
under production in Montalbano, 2,236 (905
hectares) in the Colli Fiorentini, 140 (57
hectares) in Montespertoli, 1,840 (745 hectares)
in Rufina, 8,780 (3,553 hectares) in the Colli
Senesi, 380 (154 hectares) in Colline Pisane,
1,603 (649 hectares) in the Colli Aretini, and
an additional 25,511 (10,324 hectares) in the
peripherals areas that do not fall within one of
the sub-zone classifications. Wines produced
from these vineyards are simply labeled as
"Chianti".
Sub-zone differences
A bottle of basic DOCG Chianti Riserva that does
not specify a sub-zone on the label. This wine
may be a blend from several zones. Outside of
Chianto Classico, the wines of the Chianti
sub-zone of Rufina are among the most widely
recognized and exported from the Chianti region.
Located in the Arno valley near the town of
Pontassieve, the Rufina region includes much
area in the Pomino region, an area that has a
long history of wine production. The area is
noted for the cool climate of its elevated
vineyards located up to 2,950 feet (900 meters).
The vineyard soils of the region are
predominately marl and chalk. The Florentine
merchant families of the Antinori and
Frescobaldi own the majority of the vineyards in
Rufina. Chianti from the Rufina area is
characterized by its multi-layered complexity
and elegance.
The Colli Fiorentini has seen an influx of
activity and new vineyard development in recent
years as wealthy Florentine business people move
to the country to plant vineyards and open
wineries. Many foreign "flying winemakers" have
had a hand in this development, bringing global
viticulture and winemaking techniques to the
Colli Fiorentini. Located in the hills between
the Chianti Classico area and Arno valley, the
wines of the Colli Fiorentini vary widely
depending on producer, but tend to have a simple
structure with strong character and fruit notes.
The Montespertoli sub-zone was part of the Colli
Fiorentini sub-zone until 2002 when it became
its own tiny enclave.
The Montalbano region is located in the shadow
of the Carmignano DOCG, with much of the best
Sangiovese going to that wine. A similar
situation exists in the Colli Senesi which
includes the well known DOCG regions of Brunello
di Montalcino and Vino Nobile di Montepulciano.
Both regions rarely appear on wine labels that
are exported out of Tuscany. The Colli Pisane
area produces typical Chiantis with the lightest
body and color. The Colli Aretini is a
relatively new and emerging area that has seen
an influx of investment and new winemaking in
recent years.
Chianti blend and legal requirements
Since 1996 the blend for Chianti and Chianti
Classico has been 75-100% Sangiovese, up to 10%
Canaiolo and up to 20% of any other approved red
grape variety such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot
or Syrah. Since 2006, the use of white grape
varieties such as Malvasia and Trebbiano have
been prohibited in Chianti Classico. Chianti
Classico must have a minimum alcohol level of at
least 12% with a minimum of 7 months aging in
oak, while Chianti Classico's labeled riserva
must be aged at least 27 months at the winery,
with a minimum alcohol level of at least 12.5%.
The harvest yields for Chianti Classico are
restricted to no more than 3 tons per acre (7.5
tonnes/hectare). For basic Chianti, the minimum
alcohol level is 11.5% with yields restricted to
4 tons per acre (9 tonnes/hectare).
The aging for basic Chianti DOCG is much less
stringent with most varieties allowed to be
released to the market on March 1st following
the vintage year. The sub-zones of Colli
Fiorentini, Montespertoli and Rufina must be
aged for a further three months and not released
until June 1st. All Chianti Classicos must be
held back until October 1st in the year
following the vintage.
Wines
Sangiovese grapes used to make Chianti
wineJancis Robinson notes that Chianti is
sometimes called the "Bordeaux of Italy". The
flexibility in the blending recipe for Chianti
accounts for some of the variability in styles
among Chiantis. Lighter bodied styles will
generally have a higher proportion of white
grape varieties blended in, while Chiantis that
have only red grape varieties will be fuller and
richer. While only 15% of Cabernet Sauvignon is
permitted in the blend, the nature of the grape
variety can have a dominant personality in the
Chianti blend and be a strong influence in the
wine.
Chianti Classico
Chianti Classico wines are characterized in
their youth by their predominantly floral and
cinnamon spicy bouquet. As the wine ages, aromas
of tobacco and leather can emerge. Chiantis tend
to have medium-highacidity and medium tannins.
The acidity in the wines make them very flexible
with food and wine pairings, particularly with
Italian cuisines that feature red sauce, as well
with as beef, lamb and wild game. Basic level
Chianti is often characterized by its juicy
fruit notes of cherry, plum and raspberry and
can range from simple quaffing wines to those
approaching the level of Chianti Classico. Wine
expert Tom Stevenson notes that these basic
everyday drinking Chiantis are at their peak
drinking qualities often between three and five
years after vintage with premium examples having
the potential to age for four to eight years.
Well-made examples of Chianti Classico often
have the potential to age and improve in the
bottle for six to twenty years.
Chianti Superiore
Chianti Superiore is an Italian DOCG wine
produced in the provinces of Arezzo, Florence,
Pisa, Pistoia, Prato and Siena, in Tuscany.
Superiore is a specification for wines produced
with a stricter rule of production than other
Chianti wines. Chianti Superiore has been
authorized since 1996. Chianti Superiore
wines can be produced only from grapes
cultivated in the Chianti wine areas except from
those vineyards that are registered in the
Chianti Classico sub-zone. Vineyards registered
in Chianti sub-zones other than Classico can
produce Chianti Superiore wines but must omit
the sub-zone name on the label. Ageing is
calculated from January 1 after the picking.
Chianti Superiore cannot be sold to the consumer
before nine months of ageing, of which three
must be in the bottle. Therefore it cannot be
bottled before the June after picking or sold to
consumers before the next September.
Chianti Superiore wines must be produced with
the following grapes:
Gallo Nero
The gallo nero seal of the Consorzio Chianti
ClassicoThe black rooster (gallo nero in
Italian) that appears on the neck labels of many
Chianti Classico is the symbol of the Consorzio
Chianti Classico, a foundation of producers in
the Chianti Classico region. The foundation was
founded with the aim of promoting the wines of
the region, improving quality and preventing
wine fraud. Since the 1980s, the foundation has
sponsored extensive research into the
viticultural and winemaking practice of the
Chianti Classic area, particularly in the area
of clonal research. In the last quarter of a
century more than 50% of the vineyards in the
Chianti Classic region have been replanted with
improved Sangioves clones and to modern vineyard
schematics as part of the Consorzio Chianti
Classico's project "Chianti 2000".
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