The following is the cover story of Chianti Classico Almanac 2024, the fourth issue of Tipicamente Magazine and the second edition of the annual monograph dedicated to the lands, wines and wineries of the Black Rooster.
Click here to purchase your full print or digital copy (available in Italian only, for now).
A great Italian story
The speeches follow each other placidly, one after the other, until the one that chills the Salone dei Cinquecento (Hall of the Five Hundred) in Florence’s Palazzo Vecchio, forcing onlookers to lower their gaze. «I greet the producers of Chianti…» And then again, «Today there are so many who have copied the Chianti experience…» Easy to understand the reasons for so much embarrassment. The words are those of Francesco Lollobrigida – Minister of MASAF (Ministry of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forestry) – uttered during the “Back to the Future” conference last May 14, a celebration of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Consorzio per la difesa del Vino Tipico del Chianti e della sua Marca di Origine (Consortium for the Defense of the Typical Chianti Wine and its Brand of Origin), named since 1968 the Chianti Classico Wine Consortium. Understand, Mr. Minister? Chianti CLASSICO!
Here he is, for the umpteenth time, the elephant in the room. Or rather, the Black Rooster. Chosen from the start by the 33 founding members as the identifying icon of the Consortium, the first ever in the history of Italian wines, he appears to us as a kind of Great Gatsby in Tuscan sauce. We imagine him peering down from the enchanting ceiling painted by Vasari, sipping his red with a wistful smile, at the many guests who have joyfully flocked to another one of the magnificent parties he organizes each week to honor all the anniversaries of his century-long history. They’re having fun, they’re happy, and patience if not everyone present can point out exactly who the birthday boy is.
A 2024 dense with anniversaries is ending, starting with the one that is by far the most important for the very survival of today’s Chianti Classico wine, as well as its territorial identity. That of the neo centennial consortium is a story that goes far beyond strictly oenological matters and is intertwined with the major events of the last century, in Italy and beyond. Conflicts, calamities, political and socioeconomic upheavals, crises, triumphs, legal disputes, falls, restarts, redemptions. And one underlying evidence: brutalizing the synthesis to the utmost, if Chianti Classico has somehow managed to retain a chance at autonomy, first as a Subzone and then as a separate appellation, almost all of it is owed-at least in the first instance-to the 33 wine growers and producers who united on May 14, 1924, in Radda.
In hindsight, it was simply decisive that they chose to get together to try to protect what was in effect one of the first ante litteram DOCs of the modern era, designed in 1716 by the edict of the Grand Duke of Tuscany Cosimo III de’ Medici. Not to mention, icing on the cake, the resounding insight that made them the architects of one of the most successful marketing operations ever. Perhaps not entirely conscious, yet tremendously effective in its repercussions in terms of planetary recognition and added value: the adoption as a consortium symbol of the Black Rooster, emblem of the ancient Lega del Chianti, which becomes the figurative mark of an associative body and the wines it protects, but at the same time of an entire district.
An unsolvable issue
We do not excuse you, Minister, but you are at least in good company. Of course, this is not the space to reconstruct the many reasons for the atavistic confusion between Chianti and Chianti Classico. Regardless of how and why, it is now a given that the matter is substantially unmanageable, linked first and foremost to the overlap between two names that are sometimes used to denote the same thing, and others designate distinctly different things. We still struggle to juggle it ourselves, after more than two decades in the industry, let alone an ordinary reader, consumer, traveler who has not intentionally delved into the subject or stumbled upon it in some wine introduction course.
Without the help of a person with the will and patience to explain it, it is impossible to understand on one’s own, of pure logic and common sense:
- That there is a territory historically called Chianti, corresponding (except for minor adjustments) to that delimited by the Medici proclamation of the 18th century.
- That in that same territory are produced wines and oils with a denomination of origin certified by the Chianti Classico brand.
- That that same territory appears with alternative mentions depending on the institutional spheres (for example, the Distretto Rurale del Chianti – Rural District of Chianti -, the Bio-district of Chianti and the Foundation for the Protection of the Territory of Chianti Classico operate on the same area, while the UNESCO candidacy has been officially submitted for the “Landscape of the Chianti Classico Farm-Villa System”).
- That there are appellation of origin wines and oils certified by the Chianti brand, which have no geographical connection with historic Chianti and are in fact produced in other areas of Tuscany.
- That this is one of the very rare cases in which the term Classico does not designate a “subset” of a larger area belonging to the same appellation.
- That producers and experts sometimes – erroneously – use the phrase “Chianti” instead of “Chianti Classico” to refer to wines marked with the Black Rooster (out of habit, laziness, need for abbreviation, implied area of origin, etc.); and we could go on and on.
World winemaking is chock-full of names, rules, and exceptions that seem artfully created to throw us off and lead us into a trap. Perhaps leading us to swap a village and a grand cru for similar names in Burgundy, or convincing us that we have struck a bargain by preferring a Bordeaux Supérieur to a Pauillac. With one fundamental difference that makes the Chianti-Chianti Classico mess unique: it is one thing to swap wines from the same macro-region, as in the hypothesized cases, and quite another to fail to distinguish between bottles that come from entirely different, distinct, separate districts.
Waiting for the final leap?
With the party over, the grand gown removed, there remains, in short, a bittersweet aftertaste. We are witnessing a prodigious but far from accomplished journey that leads one to wonder what is missing for the final leap to Olympus. There is no doubt that the misunderstanding of the name (indeed, of the names) constitutes the main structural limitation, on balance irreversible and without any concrete possibility of solution. However, it is not the only one. Despite the many changes taking place, even today only a small part of the most famous, expensive, iconic wines produced in the Chianti Classico territory are offered through one of the three types (“Annata”, Riserva and Gran Selezione) provided for by the Black Rooster DOCG. Can you imagine Monfortino by Giacomo Conterno coming out as Langhe Nebbiolo or Piemonte Rosso? And would Montalcino be the same if Biondi Santi’s Brunello Riserva were marketed as IGT Toscana?
The long-term trend will surely be one of exponential strengthening of Chianti Classico appellation wines, as much in average level as in blazon, personality and peak positioning, all the more so with the introduction of the Additional Geographical Units (UGAs). It is precisely here, however, that a further short circuit manifests itself. What is coming to a close goes down in the archives as the year in which the first wines – exclusively of the Gran Selezione type – with the indication of the UGA on the label were put on the market. Yet little was said about it, even by the producers themselves. Almost as if it were something already “old,” chewed up and digested, when in fact it is an instrument resulting from a regulatory process that is not yet effective in all its components (just think of the “transitional” sub-communal UGAs, such as Montefioralle, Lamole and Vagliagli, whose names cannot be indicated on the label before 2027).
The delicate balance between the present and the future
The centennial events once again highlight the main strength of the district, namely the ability to pursue a collective long-term vision. The awareness of a history in its own way epic that becomes fuel for extremely current projects in the goals of enhancing human and territorial resources. Such as the themes of environmental sustainability and challenges related to agronomic and climatic changes, which find synthesis in a true programmatic Manifesto.
A doubly glittering foresight, when compared to the conservative approach taken by other reputed regional districts, not without its pitfalls, however. When the gaze is cast so powerfully into the future, there is a risk of underestimating some of the achievements already made that need to be consolidated. Returning to UGAs, the impression is that of a reform that has not yet been metabolized, requiring extra effort to be fully explained and understood. Misunderstandings are, moreover, just around the corner, as emerges from the comparison with several foreign professionals, especially of Anglo-Saxon culture, accustomed to handling second-level mappings (cru, sub-areas, mentions) through codes rooted in traditions very distant from that of Chianti Classico. Journalists and operators who go into a tailspin as soon as they discover additional layers of heterogeneity and complexity become apparent with each successive zoom. Conditioned almost Pavlovianly, we write this with the utmost respect, by a misunderstood idea of cause-and-effect, mechanical, didactic, that should correspond between a narrower area and the wines that take shape there.
It is as challenging as it is urgent, the task to which Black Rooster producers, individually and as a group, are called: it is more than ever up to them to accompany communicators, buyers and consumers in this delicate phase of transition. Helping them to understand, for starters, that UGAs are not necessarily born with the goal of indicating a certain expressive profile – like San Casciano has soft cherry and Radda has sour orange. Instead, making clearer the method embraced, which for a thousand reasons (environmental, social, agricultural, business) has little to do with that implemented in, say, Burgundy, Langa or Mosel-Saar-Ruwer. A drone that glides from above in various directions, illuminating the opportunities arising from more advanced, contemporary, and timely survey. A GPS that facilitates the understanding of a decidedly large district, in its entirety, through the ultimate discovery of its plural, community and viticultural dimensions. An absolute priority for Chianti Classico, even considering the issues recalled at the beginning.
Just as it cannot be left to others to handle a whole series of scenarios related to a possible phase two of the project, which appear as if suspended in a kind of limbo. For example, what are the prospects for a “vertical” evolution of UGAs, which is desired by many? Will it also be possible to enhance them through the “Annata” and Riserva types? And then, what ideas are on the table, should the intention be to harmonize in a “horizontal” sense a territorial division where, at the moment, rather different Geographical Units coexist in terms of extension and geo-viticultural, pedoclimatic, stylistic homogeneity? Issues that attract attention and interest, not only among wine nerds, raising questions that are difficult to answer today.
Ten years of Chianti Classico Gran Selezione
While we wait to better understand the next steps, the entry into force of the UGAs is already contributing in a fundamental way to enrich another piece of the so-called Gallo Nero Revolution (Black Rooster Revolution), which in these months celebrates a symbolic milestone. In fact, 2024 will also mark ten years since the institution of the Gran Selezione: a new category first transposed in 2014 by the Chianti Classico disciplinary, referring to wines entirely produced from vineyards under direct management, with minimum maturation and refinement times extended with respect to the “Annata” and Riserva types (30 months in the cellar, of which at least 3 in the bottle, before marketing).
There is no doubt that on this front the balance is extraordinarily positive, especially if we remember the premises with which the Gran Selezione appeared on the stage. On the “internal” level, the primary purpose was avowedly to add a new summit to the denomination, trying to involve as many realities as possible that were struggling to bet fully on the DOCG. On the one hand, an attempt was made to recover those benchmark wines that preferred the IGT cap, at least the Sangiovese-based Super Tuscans. On the other hand, the aim was to stimulate the birth of unprecedented labels specifically designed for the category. On the “external” side, on the other hand, the Gran Selezione represented a message addressed to the market, consumers and critics, in the unvarnished intention of raising the perception of Chianti Classico in terms of value and image, aligning it (also in prices) with that of other great Italian reds for aging.
However, the debut of the Gran Selezione did not meet with great enthusiasm, to put it mildly, branded by many experts as a mere marketing operation. Nor did very different signals come from the wineries themselves: only 33 decided to claim the new type in the very first round of releases, and they were almost always big brands, where artisan wineries were rather cold, if not openly hostile. The picture then gradually changed, and a great deal was affected by the effects, more or less intended, of the changes made to the disciplinary between 2021 and 2023, both in terms of the ampelographic platform (with Sangiovese going from 80 to a minimum of 90 percent and the remaining 10 percent being the prerogative of traditional varieties only) and the decision to link the Gran Selezione to the Additional Geographical Units. A double decisive turning point with surprising repercussions.
Without the red thread of Sangiovese, the UGAs would hardly have made the sense they do today, and the reconnaissance would have been tangled, to say the least. On the other hand, the Gran Selezione has shown that it can represent a different, tailored stylistic idea and not just a tool designed to chase a phantom peak. From an “additive” wine (riper grapes, more extract, more alcohol, more wood) to a multidimensional laboratory, suitable for shaping labels capable of telling the specificities of the many territories of Chianti Classico, including individual vineyards. From “vertical-only” to “vertical-horizontal” model, to use an easy approximation.
It is no accident that today’s wines appear very different from those of the early days, at least analyzing them in their complexity. The typology no longer seems like a vessel to attract old Super Tuscans or “château selections,” but a modern, refined and alluring home for decidedly more inspired and coherent readings. “Genetic” metamorphoses that have enormously elevated the approval rating of the Gran Selezione, as the numbers also show: there are currently about 200 wineries that offer at least one in their range and the total annual bottles exceed two million, corresponding to 6-7% of the total production certified to DOCG.
Beyond the figures, these are wines that are increasingly fun and enjoyable to taste – indeed, to drink – thanks in part to a corporate landscape that is markedly more diverse and transversal than a decade ago. A category that looks less and less like an exclusive club tailored to big brands, finally able to integrate many small winemakers as well (including many early opponents), conquering-perhaps by other means-that central role its creators had imagined. A significant path in every respect, which certainly makes the many toasts to teamwork and unity in diversity, shared in this long year of celebration, more credible.
