Chianti wine

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It’s harvest time and thinking of what Wikiwiki says about Chianti..
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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, the future 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.[1]

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.

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.[2] 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.[3] Since 2005 the black rooster has been the emblem of the Chianti Classico producers association.[4] 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”.

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.[5] As of 2006, there were 17,640 acres (7,142 hectares) of vineyards in the Chianti Classico region.[1]

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, 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.[5] 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.[2]