Oenophily

For many people, their first experience with Italian wine will be Chianti. It’s an experience that has the potential to be either very good or very bad and the reasons for this are intimately tied to the history of the wine.

Chianti became the first designated wine region in the world in 1716 when the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Cosimo III de’ Medici, issued an edict naming the land around the villages of Radda, Gaiole, and Castellina (with Greve added later) as the recognized producers of the wine. Today the boundaries of Chianti have expanded to cover almost 100 miles in length from north to south while the smaller area around the original villages is now known as Chianti Classico.

The modern definition of Chianti was formulated in 1872 by Barone Bettino Ricasoli and documented in a letter to Professor Cesare Studiati at the University of Pisa:

“… the wine receives most of its aroma from the Sangioveto (which is my particular aim) as well as a certain vigour in taste; the Canajuolo gives it a sweetness which tempers the harshness of the former without taking away any of its aroma, though it has an aroma all of its own; the Malvagia, which could probably be omitted for wines for laying down, tends to dilute the wine made from the first two grapes, but increases the taste and makes the wine lighter and more readily suitable for daily consumption… “

It is interesting to note that this description encompasses two styles of Chianti: a lighter, younger style for everyday drinking, and a richer, aged style. For a variety of reasons, it is the former that has been, until recently, dominant.

During the first half of the twentieth century, agriculture in much of central and northern Italy was based on a sharecropping system. Farmers who were making wine for their own consumption using their share of the grapes had little interest in (or surplus wealth to support) laying down bottles for aging, so they naturally turned towards the younger, everyday style. Many landowners were also focused on converting grapes to wine as quickly as possible and then selling it in bulk. Both would often manage the vineyards to produce as much fruit as possible, a bias reinforced by government-led replanting programs in the 1960s, and a choice that led to and acidic wines.

Further eroding the flavor of Barone Ricasoli’s original recipe was the replacement over time of the aromatic and flavorful Malvasia by the considerably less so Trebbiano. This was undoubtedly driven by Trebbiano’s prolific production, resistance to disease and rot, and adaptability to a wide range of soils.  These are advantages which it also holds over Sangiovese, which may explain why larger percentages of white wine came to be used in Chianti blends.

The quantity over quality style became the official version of the wine when the Chianti DOC was created in 1967, and white wine grapes were required to be at least 10% of the blend, with up to 30% allowed. Using this formula, an ocean of tart, cheap wine was bottled and distributed far and wide in the straw-wrapped container all too aptly called a fiasco*.

However, even as the government was encouraging the production of bad wine, some Tuscan winemakers were focusing on excellence in winemaking. This movement is famous for giving rise to the ‘Super Tuscans’, but it also led to changes in the laws governing Chianti. In 1984, the minimum percentage of white wine grapes was reduced to 2% and blending up to 10% of “international” red wine varieties such as Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon was authorized. Chianti and Chianti Classico were also upgraded to DOCG appellations, a change which reduced the maximum yield from the vineyards and led to the growing of more concentrated fruit.

The laws were changed again in 1996, eliminating the requirement for blending in white wine at all and upping the allowed portion of international grapes to 15%. Finally, in 2006, blending white wine was completely banned in the Chianti Classico region (though still permitted in other parts of Chianti), and the allowed portion of authorized international varieties was increased to 20%.

Bad Chianti still exists today, but there is also a lot of good. The most highly regarded region is Chianti Classico. Many of these wines, some will say the best, carry the gallo nero (black rooster) logo of the Chianti Classico growers association, Consorzio del Vino Classico Chianti. In the larger Chianti appellation, the wines of the Rufina sub-zone are generally considered the best, though good wines can come from anywhere in the region.

A full range of styles is available, from early drinking wines that, outside of the Classico region, incorporate white wines in the blend, to rich, age-worthy riservas that undergo extended maturation in wood. Finally, yes, there are those that only a generous person would categorize as, er, rustic. But, for the most part, Chiantis are still affordable enough that when you hit a bad one, you just open another bottle.

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*Most etymologists believe that the English meaning of fiasco, ‘a complete failure’, is related to the Italian word for flask or bottle, but not because of bad Chianti. The origins of the English usage are unclear but apparently rooted in late 19th century Italian slang. Two good discussions of the subject are this entry on World Wide Words and Still in the Bottleneck, or, Chasing for the First Fiasco on the Oxford University Press blog.

Theories abound on the origin of the name Sangiovese. One of the most common (and most likely incorrect) is that it comes from the Latin sangius Jovis, “the blood of Jove.” Others say it comes from the phrase “the blood of the ridges” (sangue dai gioghetti), which would seem to tie to the name Sangiogheto used in what is believed to be the first written reference to the grape. Another interesting theory is that it comes from the term sangiovannese, a word that refers to an inhabitant of San Giovanni Valdarno, a town in eastern Tuscany.

No matter what the origin of the name, no grape captures the essence of Italian wine better than Sangiovese. This is not because it is the most widely grown grape in Italy, present in more than 250 DOCs across the country, nor because somewhere around 90% of the Sangiovese grown worldwide is grown in Italy. All those things are true, but the key fact is that the wines made from Sangiovese demonstrate both the abysmal lows and the stellar heights that Italian winemaking can reach.

There are some good reasons for this. Sangiovese has been described as being as sensitive to location and climate as Pinot Noir. It buds early and ripens late, so it likes a long growing season with plenty of warmth. If not fully ripe when picked, the resulting wine can have a distinct barnyard quality, but too much warmth can dilute the grape’s flavors and rob the wine of complexity.

Left to its own devices, Sangiovese will produce copious amounts of fruit, leading to wines that are thin and acidic. The fruit grows in very tight clusters that ripen unevenly. It is a relatively thin-skinned variety which, along with the tight clusters, makes it prone to rot when rains occur near harvest, a fact that can put pressure on growers to pick the grapes before they are fully ripe.

In the mid-twentieth century, the focus for many Italian winemakers was to create low-cost easy-drinking beverages meant to be consumed in their youth. In such an environment, greater quantity meant greater profits, making Sangiovese a popular grape. It was not uncommon for growers to rip out lower yielding varieties and replant with Sangiovese (or if looking for white grapes, Trebbiano, another variety known for abundance). Emphasizing quantity almost guaranteed bringing out the worst in Sangiovese, so blending in other grapes to shore up the weaknesses was the norm.

It didn’t always work.

However, there always was a segment of industry focused on quality vinification using Sangiovese. Out of this group have risen some of the greatest Italian wines of all time: Brunello di Montalcino, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, Chianti Classico, Morellino di Scansano, Sangiovese di Romagna, and, more recently, Sangiovese-based Super Tuscans. (Ironically, “Super Tuscan” is a term now coming to encompass the worst in Italian winemaking as well. See Snake Oil From Tuscany.)

While each expression of Sangiovese has its own identity, and blending partners can change the overall taste of the wine, there are commonalities. Flavors of cherries, tobacco, and leather generally come from Sangiovese. Some people get strawberry notes in young wines and prune and chestnut flavors in older ones. Regardless of style, these wines are exceptionally food-friendly, matching with everything from red sauces and pizza for young Chiantis to deep rich stews for Brunellos.

And that truly is the soul of Vino Italiano– food and wine together.

There have been several stories recently about counterfeit wine. It shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone that the wines chosen for schemes like this are higher priced wines. An example in Italy is Brunello di Montalcino, which often starts in the $60-$70 per bottle range. Now one industry organization is fighting back.

The Consorzio del Vino Brunello di Montalcino has created a system to verify the origin of wines of Montalcino. Go to their website, select the type of wine, the size, and enter the number from the DOC or DOCG label, and you will immediately have the truth about whether the bottle in front of you is authentic or not. They say the current system works for Brunello di Montalcino vintage 1999 or later, and Rosso di Montalcino vintage 2005 or later.

It is hardly news that the term Super Tuscan has steadily been losing its luster. Created in the 1970s to put a name to some exceptional wines that didn’t fit into the structure of Italy’s DOC laws, it has been widely co-opted by lesser products seeking to bask in the sunshine of the original success. Just how devalued the name has become was demonstrated to me at a recent wine tasting.

Invited by the seller to try a “Super Tuscan”, I was immediately wary when I noticed that the wine in my glass had a definite brown color at the edges. True Super Tuscans are big wines with tons of aging potential and this one was only 5 years old (vintage 2010, which happened to be a pretty good year in Tuscany). The aroma wasn’t conclusive, but my first thought upon tasting was, “This seems a bit tired.” In fact, what it really reminded me of was a Chianti past its prime.

A glance at the spec sheet confirmed my instinct. The wine was 85% Sangiovese, 10% Merlot, and 5% Syrah (meeting the rules for Chianti), and made just outside of Montalcino, well within the borders of the Chianti Colli Senesi DOCG. So why would a wine made in the style of a top level appellation settle for carrying a Toscana IGT name? There are several possible reasons, but I think the clues we have, coupled with a quick look at Italian wine law yields the most likely answer.

The Toscana IGT rules allow winemakers to do pretty much anything they want as long as the grapes are grown in Tuscany and the yields are 16 tonnes per hectare or less (for red wine grapes). The Chianti rules are stricter, requiring the wine to be 75% Sangiovese and limiting yields to 11.5 tonnes per hectare in Colli Sensei. Sangiovese is a grape variety that will produce bountifully if you let it. By selecting the IGT appellation, the winery can legally harvest nearly 50% more grapes from the same land.

The trade-off in doing this is that the resulting wine tends to be thin and acidic without much aging potential. Merlot and Syrah are exactly the right grapes to balance out a thin and acidic wine in its youth, and that completes the picture of what’s going on here. The winemaker was creating an inexpensive quaff meant to be enjoyed while young. Nothing wrong in that… until the sales channel starts trying to pass it off as something more.

The definition of “snake oil” is a product with questionable or unverifiable quality. The problem with unofficial names like “Super Tuscan” for wines is that there are no rules, which means there is no framework for evaluating the quality. Even legally defined terms can be of little value when they are too broad or too vague, as demonstrated in the discussion above. Some of the original Super Tuscans now have their own DOC designations, a step that provides a much more reliable guide to their composition and quality. Everything else being marketed under the Super Tuscan name is best covered by an ancient Roman law: caveat emptor.

The recent rise in popularity of dry rosé wines (at least in the U.S.) might lead you to think they are something new. You’d be wrong. For much of history, dry rosé was the preferred expression of red wine grapes.

It is only in the last couple hundred years that winemakers have had all the technological pieces in place to reliably make the mature red wines we enjoy today. For example, without the ability to to control temperatures, wines undergoing maceration can get hot enough to kill the yeast (called “stuck fermentation”). The was particularly a problem in warmer climates, such as southern Italy. Winemakers learned that by pressing the wines early and separating the juice from the skins, they would be able to complete the fermentation. The trade off was that they would end up with a lighter color wine, or rosato, the Italian word for rosé.

An example of this is Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo. Brief maceration (8 to 12 hours) and light pressing on the dark, flavorful, thick-skinned Montepulciano grape yields a delightful medium bodied wine. The word Cerasuolo means “cherry red”, and the resulting wine is a vibrant color that could make other rosés (if you’ll excuse the term) blush.

The color isn’t the only vibrant thing about Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo. These are some of the heartiest pink wines available, likely to have cherry and strawberry flavors supported by elegant spicy notes that might include orange peel and cinnamon. Richly flavored without being heavy or tannic, these wines are capable of pairing with an amazingly wide variety of foods.

Richer seafood dishes, pork, and roast game are all easy choices, but the bright fruit and exotic notes of a Cerasuolo can stand up to spicy food as well– after all, pepperoncini comes from Abruzzo. These wines go great with grilled Italian sausages (sweet or spicy) and BBQ.

Wanna take a walk on the wild side? Try Cerasuolo with curry. Then you will know for sure that there is Power in Pink.