I love Chianti, Italy’s most famous red wine. This crisp red has had to negotiate a maze of legal and stylistic problems in the past 50 years yet despite it all has retained a countrified persona that’s best with tart foods.
Chianti can be a bit rustic. It also can be high in acidity and thus works beautifully with tomato-based foods, and it benefits from aeration. So in some ways, it’s predictable. But its image can confound Italian wine newcomers.
As its laws have changed, so has its style, and there are several quality designations at the upper echelons that are so confusing they won’t be mentioned here.
Almost all regular Chianti once adhered to a tradition that called for it to be a pale red with brick color and aromas of tree bark. And it wasn’t very age-worthy.
It could last and improve with 10 years in the bottle. Beyond that, collectors knew the wines would fade. It was usually a drink-now wine. A few Chianti producers had wines that aged longer, but the Chianti “formula” in place for a century was passed down from a historic figure. And that formula emphasized early drinking.
The original definition of what constituted Chianti was written in 1874 by political leader Barone Bettino Ricasoli, owner of the Tuscan house of Brolio. His “formula” said Chianti should be made of 80 percent indigenous red grapes (sangiovese and canaiolo) and 20 percent white grapes. This made lighter red wines that wouldn’t age well.
What was ignored was Ricasoli’s succeeding text that said if a producer wished to make a longer-lived wine, white grapes could be excluded. That part of the “formula” was never adopted.
The result was that those wishing to make a deeper-flavored, longer-lived Chianti couldn’t call it Chianti. Some stayed with tradition, but the quality leader of Tuscany 50 years ago, Piero Antinori, challenged tradition. He released a 1971 wine called Tignanello that was made mainly from red grapes. It didn’t say “Chianti.”
But it set a tone for a new type of vino da tavola intended for more aging, up to 30 years. And it was expensive.
Italy’s wine-quality regulations were written in 1963, setting rules aimed at making better wine. The Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita (DOCG) rules also mandated certain aging regimens.
That regulation changed in 1984 with a law that still required white grapes and permitted additional blending into Chianti. By 1990, the law still required some white grapes to be used, but rebels were beginning to ignore the law, making more international-style wines, so-called Super Tuscans. Some were called Chianti, still mainly sangiovese, but often with cabernet added. That changed the wines.
The 1980s were chaotic in Tuscany. And soon, Italian regulations for what constituted a Chianti Classico under the law were modified again. Still, it wasn’t until 1997 that the DOCG laws were changed to eliminate the mandate of white grapes.
Today’s Chianti is better than ever. Regular Chianti is somewhat simple. There are also Chiantis from different regions, and wines designated “riserva.”
Now a new category, approved in 2014, is called Grand Selezione, a sort of guarantee that age-worthy Chianti is mainly only sangiovese. Cabernet no longer is allowed in that version.
Despite all the changes in Chianti laws, there is one enduring reality. It is sangiovese at its best. Chianti Classico today is a deeper, more complex wine than it was decades ago, and yet retains its great affinity for food.
No Wine of the Week.
