|
You
can find many people's idea of earthly paradise in the 167 sq. km (65
sq. miles) of land between Florence and Siena, known as the Chianti. In
fact, the British have such a history of buying up old farmhouses and
settling here it's often referred to as Chiantishire. It isn't hard to
see why they come -- the tall, closely gathered hills are capped by
ancient cities and medieval castles, and the stream-fed valleys are
dotted with expanding market towns. All is often shrouded in a light
mist that renders the blue-gray distance inscrutable and cloaks the
hills in a mysterious rural magic. Many of the rolling slopes are
planted with olive groves that shimmer dark green and dusty silver, but
some 4,000 hectares (9,880 acres) are blanketed with marching vines. The
grapes that grow from these gnarled, woody "question marks" form the
primary capital in the region's bacchanalian economy.
This is the world's definitive wine region, in both history and spirit;
these hills have been an oenological center for several thousand years.
In fact, one local grape, the Canaiolo nero -- one of the varietals that
traditionally goes into Chianti Classico -- was known to the ancients as
the "Etruscan grape." The name Chianti, probably derived from that of
the local noble Etruscan family Clantes, has been used to describe the
hills between Florence and Siena for centuries, but it wasn't until the
mid-13th century that Florence created the Lega del Chianti to unite the
region's three most important centers -- Castellina, Radda, and Gaiole
-- which chose the black rooster as their symbol. By 1404, the red wine
long produced here was being called chianti as well, and in 1716 a grand
ducal decree defined the boundaries of the Chianti and laid down general
rules for its wine production, making it the world's first officially
designated wine-producing area. In the 19th century, one vintner, the
"Iron Baron" Ricasoli, experimented with varietals using the sangiovese
grape as his base. Working off centuries of refinement, he eventually
came up with the perfect balance of grapes that became the unofficial
standard for all chianti.
Soon the title "chianti" was being used by hundreds of poor-quality,
vino-producing hacks, both within the region and from far-flung areas,
diminishing the international reputation of the wine. To fight against
this, Greve and Castelnuovo Berardenga joined the original Lega cities
and formed the Consorzio del Gallo Nero in 1924, reviving the old black
rooster as their seal. The consorzio (still active -- their members
produce about 80% of the Chianti Classico that's bottled) pressed for
laws regulating the quality of chianti wines and restricting the Chianti
Classico name to their production zone. When Italy devised its DOC and
DOCG laws in the 1960s, chianti was one of the first to be defined as
DOCG, guaranteeing its quality as one of the top wines in the country.
Today, of the 100 sq. km (39 sq. miles) of vineyards in the hills
between Florence and Siena, some 6,972 hectares (17,221 acres) are
devoted to the grapes that will eventually become Chianti Classico and
carry the seal of the black rooster. |
