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I think perhaps Chianti has made the turn back to its roots. What a long road it’s been for this famous region, and how far over the last thirty years it has strayed from its heritage.

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CHIANTI: THE LONG ROAD TO REDISCOVERY
by Peter Gibson

About a year ago, a good friend and I were contemplating a Barolo from a highly regarded producer. We swirled, sniffed and tasted the wine straight from the bottle, then again after it was decanted. No matter what we did, we couldn’t muster the same enthusiasm for the wine as the critics who had lauded it.

The Barolo was dark, opaque, black in the center and plum-colored around its meniscus. The wine smelled and tasted foremost of flashy, vanilla-scented French oak. Nowhere to be found were the classic Barolo aromas of tar, dried roses, white truffles, dark cherries and camphor. Disappointed with this wine and the many others that too closely resembled it, I posited that no region had betrayed its roots more than the Piedmont. My friend disagreed: he insisted that the region most removed from its legacy was Tuscany. I thought hard, bringing to memory a number of the Tuscan wines I had tasted recently and those I had tasted from the ’70s and early ’80s. I had no valid or reasonable riposte.

Flash forward to mid-September 2006, when I had lunch with Roberto Stucchi, the managing director of the Chianti’s great Badia a Coltibuono estate. After a brief and enlightening discussion about Badia’s move to organic agriculture and sustainable practices, we tasted through the estate’s wines. The Badia’s Chianti Classico Riserve we tasted that day had the confidence and character of the great Chiantis I enjoyed before French barriques, Cabernet Sauvignon and internationalization pervaded the region. As I walked back to my car, I began to think that perhaps Chianti has made the turn back to its roots. I pondered what a long road it’s been for this famous region, and just how far over the last thirty years it has strayed from its heritage.

From Rustic Style to Super-Tuscans

In the past, a handful of Tuscan estates produced wines of depth and longevity, but most wines grown in Chianti were rustic, flawed and intended solely as simple tipple for the denizens. The wine was almost always a field blend of both red and white grapes. The traditional red grapes -- Sangiovese, Canaiolo, Colorino, Ciliegiolo and Mammolo -- were grown interspersed with each other in fields also containing the white grapes, Malvasia Bianco and Trebbiano Toscano. This is in marked contrast to today’s vineyards where vineyard blocks are almost always dedicated to a specific varietal, with the noble Sangiovese receiving the most favorable sites.

Chianti’s wine was cheap and plentiful, but never given a second thought as a “serious” wine. In fact, much of what was sold as cheap Chianti contained even darker and cheaper wine trucked in from southern Italy. Nobody noticed and nobody cared, until appellation laws took hold.

In 1967, the same year the mezzadria system perished [see sidebar], Chianti was awarded D.O.C. (Denominazione di Origine Controllata) status. With the award came stipulations about regional boundaries, proper vineyard sites, vineyard yields, length of maturation, finished wine regulations, and the grapes permitted. The first D.O.C. laws mandated that Chianti must contain at least 10% white grapes, and may contain up to 30%, all in an attempt to maximize yield rather than the quality of the wine. The red grapes permitted were Sangiovese, Canaiolo, Colorino, Mammolo and other historical varietals. Nowhere was there mention of Cabernet Sauvignon or other “foreign” vines.

Chianti estate owners began to travel and receive visitors from Bordeaux and other winemaking regions. They were rewarded with an infusion of worldly knowledge and seeds of ideas for making more serious wine. An offshoot of Tuscany’s Antinori family, the Marchesi Incisa della Rochetta estate in Tuscany’s warm, seaside Bolgheri region, began planting Bordeaux varietals and soon gained reverence and revenue for its flagship wine, Sassicaia. Soon after, the more adventurous and experimental Chianti producers followed suit by blending the foreign Cabernet Sauvignon with the indigenous Sangiovese. The eponymous Antinori estate gained unprecedented renown for its Sangiovese-Cabernet Blend, Tignanello. Thus, Bordeaux fever had begun. The term coined to describe these Franco-Italian fusions was “Super-Tuscans.”

Internationalization Versus Regional Soul

Despite its D.O.C. status, Chianti retained a persistent stigma as a cheap wine, while the newfangled wines, although marketed as lowly vini da tavola, were commanding far higher prices and receiving far greater critical praise. Many estates began to illegally blend in some Cabernet Sauvignon to beef up an estate’s flagship Chianti, or to make its best wines exclusively from old plantings of Sangiovese. Many sought the aid of new small French oak barriques in which to mature their riserve.

In 1984, Chianti was granted Italian Wine Law’s highest honor, the D.O.C.G. or Denominazione di Origine Controllata Garantita. New laws were drafted to adapt to the changes the region had undergone during these critical seventeen years. In an attempt to make Chianti stronger and more serious, the D.O.C.G. laws of 1984 all but eliminated the use of white grapes in the blend. The biggest change, however, was the permitted use of up to 10% “other red grapes.” These other red grapes were, of course, the Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Syrah with which estates had been experimenting (and adding illegally) for some time. Aging periods were codified, but the type of vessel was not addressed. Thus, the French barrique was permitted, and its use proliferated. While these changes certainly gained Chianti a more international audience, they also served to remove this singular region from the character and soul of its history.

The most recent Chianti Classico D.O.C.G. rules, effective with the 2006 vintage, stipulate that 80% of the blend must be from the Sangiovese grape, and allow for up to 20% of other permitted red varieties, including Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Syrah. White grapes have been eliminated completely. Ironically, just as the region has adapted to make itself more modern and in step with international trends, the pendulum is swinging back to rediscovering the tastes and characters of Chianti’s storied past.

Producers are again discovering how the deeply colored Colorino and the low acid, mellowing Canaiolo complement and tame the acidic and temperamental Sangiovese. The blending of two or all three of these historical varietals is again being rightfully acknowledged as far more than the sum of their parts. The lessons of centuries of history are finally being respected as more important than high scores in glossy magazines.

	2004 Fattoria San Fabiano, Chianti Putto    10.50/112.00 In Chianti there are two major consortiums, the Gallo Nero of Chianti Classico, whose mission is to bring Chianti to the forefront of the world’s finest wines, and the Chianti Putto, a group which espouses the affable, enjoyable, drink-now style of Chianti that made the region famous. The Fattoria San Fabiano’s Chianti Putto is a throwback to the Chiantis of yesteryear, yet cleaner and more precise thanks to modern vinification practices. Classic clay soil notes mingle with overt cherry and loganberry fruit flavors. Cherry fruit plays with hints of saddle leather and earth… Awww, heck, there’s no reason to contemplate this wine – this is a wine to drink. Based on a traditional blend of 60% Sangiovese and a 40% blend of Canaiolo, Ciliegiolo and Malvasia bianco, this is the absolute perfect pizza wine. The San Fabiano Chianti Putto also drinks incredibly well with simple pasta dishes, braised pork and classic roast chicken. Pour a glass, grab a slice, and plug in the lava lamp.
	2001 Fattoria di Petroio, Chianti Classico Riserva   25.99/252.00 Here is Chianti Classico Riserva in its deepest, most opaque expression. Yet despite the wine’s brooding color, the Petroio’s fruit is amazingly bright and high-toned. Different from the Badia below, Petroio’s Riserva is riper and far more approachable. The Petroio’s opaque black plum color is its prelude to a very expressive nose of dark cherries, wintergreen, leather and aged game. On the palate, the wine opens with bright pie cherry fruit, before segueing to firm tannins and leathery notes mid-palate. On the back-palate and through the finish, the Petroio gains complexity by combining clay-limestone soil notes with classic Sangiovese dustiness and subtle aromas of fine leather. Throughout, the Petroio maintains a sense of freshness and vivacity that makes it most enjoyable now despite its intensity and depth. Serve the Petroio Riserva now and over the coming seven years with parmesan-crusted pork chops, pâtes and terrines, duck with chanterelles, and potato-based vegetarian casseroles. The Fattorio di Petroio is quickly and deservedly becoming a favorite source for authentic, affordable Chianti Classico.
	2001 Badia a Coltibuono, Chianti Classico Riserva    27.99/280.00 Badia a Coltibuono, or the Abbey of the Good Harvest, is one of Chianti’s truly legendary estates. The estate’s riserve from the ‘60s and ‘70s, are still lively, complex, and favorites of Chianti collectors. The Badia has just released its 2001 Riserva, a wine quite honestly not ready to be enjoyed today, but one destined for a long, slow and worthwhile evolution in your cold cellar. Coltibuono’s ’01 Riserva opens with a lovely, saturated purple-ruby color in the glass, but its aromas are reticent and classically austere. With vigorous decanting, however, hints of wild cherries, dried herbs, sandalwood and leather appear. Firm and tannic on the palate, and not-yet-ready-for-prime-time, the ’01 Badia Riserva shows Sangiovese’s firmness and noble acidity, yet with an unfathomable depth of cherry fruit and sous bois that will only grow and fully reveal themselves with age. This blend of 90% Sangiovese and 10% Canaiolo is just about as serious a Chianti riserva as one can ask for, and it begs for cellaring. If you must serve it over the short term, however, please be sure to decant it for at least six hours and pair it with hearty stews, grilled beef and rich eggplant casseroles. For the adventurous, your L&E salesperson can also order the Badia’s amazing 1995 and 2000 riserve, both of which knocked my socks off in recent tastings, but which are unfortunately in very short supply.
	1995 Fattoria di Fèlsina, Chianti Classico Riserva “Rancia”   39.99/427.00 The six-acre vineyard Rancia vineyard is the Fèlsina estate’s finest site, and home of one of the most revered and coveted Chiantis. This re-release of the 1995 Rancia (pronounced Rahn-chee-uh) is a lovely example of a classically styled Chianti making the turn towards maturity. Just now beginning to shed its cloak of tannins, the ’95 Rancia is composed entirely from Sangiovese grown on pebbly limestone and sand soils at 410 meters altitude. A deep, opaque black-ruby color gradating to an amber rim, the wine offers aromas of black plums, mint, tar, leather and soy that burst from the glass. The ’95 Rancia is suave on the attack, with plummy, leathery Sangiovese fruit caressing the palate before sweet, firm tannins and complex soil notes arrive on the wine’s back-palate and finish. Notes of black cherries, tar, underbrush, leather, boysenberries and game linger on the palate as one decides whether to enjoy another sip to see if even more complexity lurks beneath the Rancia’s surface, or to take a bite of roast beef, grilled lamb or pasta tossed with a simple butter or olive oil sauce. This is genre-defining Chianti that can drink now with decanting or reward the patient with at least a decade of further evolution.

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From the Contadini to
Greenwich Village

Throughout most of the past two centuries, Chianti was a land of peasants (contadini) who farmed the estate of a noble family, talking half the year’s harvest and tendering the other half to the landlord as payment for the use of the land. Until it was abolished in 1967, this feudal arrangement, called mezzadria, was the pervasive caste system for the region.

The landowners, almost always from longstanding nobility, often lived and worked in Italy’s larger cities. Often their earnings and inherited family money were funneled to the Chianti estate merely to keep it afloat. Few if any estates were self-sufficient, and most were mere ornaments for the aristocracy who used them as country retreats, hunting outposts and secondary residences.

The peasants who worked the estates farmed wine grapes, olives, farm animals, cereal crops, fruits and vegetables alongside wine grapes – often right next to each other. In fact, historically wine grapes grew up the trunks of old olive trees so as to not waste valuable space. All work was done by hand or by beast, of course, and was performed by methods we today call low-impact, organic and sustainable. In that era, there was no choice.

As Italians emigrated to the United States, export markets for Chianti’s wines opened. Italian specialty markets began stocking inexpensive, rustic Chianti in the familiar fiasco, a clear, round-bottomed bottle wrapped in woven straw intended originally to protect the bottle from breaking during transport. This straw also served a second purpose: to allow the bottle to stand upright on the table. Not only did these wines serve well to wash down a plate of pasta or antipasti, they also gained fame as attractive candle holders. No groovy urban ’60s apartment was complete without one!

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SPECIAL FOCUS ARCHIVES:

Savennières

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Sherry Appreciation

Rosé Reborn

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2002 Oregon Pinot Noir