Fresh from our odyssey in Sicily, recounted in The World of Sicilian Wine, we embarked in 2014 on a new adventure—to tell the story of the ancient land named Chianti and the modern wine zone known as Chianti Classico. Located in the heart of Tuscany, Chianti in many respects is a world away from Sicily. Yet both have histories woven with conflict and complexity, despite the simplicity of their majestic landscapes. The similarities do not end there. In the nineteenth century, Italy’s two most famous and respected wines were Sicily’s Marsala and Tuscany’s Chianti. Like Marsala, Chianti became known worldwide in the twentieth century, propelled by the millions of Italian immigrants who brought their culture with them to the New World. The name Chianti was synonymous with the straw-covered flasks that graced virtually every Italian restaurant table until the 1970s. Bill vividly remembers his father (who had emigrated from Apulia) storing a large flask of Chianti under the kitchen sink. Every evening Dr. Nesto brought it to the family’s dining table to pour a small glassful to savor with his dinner. Chianti was also the first region in Italy that Bill visited during his studies for the Master of Wine examination. He was made an honorary member of the Lega del Chianti (League of Chianti) in 1999. Fran’s introduction to Chianti was in the 1980s when she studied for a year at the University of Florence and lived with the Anichini, one of the oldest families of viticoltori (winegrowers) in Chianti, who have farmed Fattoria Le Corti (in the high hills of Greve between Ruffoli and Lamole) since 1424.
Our first adventure on the wine road together began in Castellina in Chianti in 2003. As we traveled Chianti’s rural roads, we discovered a shared love of this land—its countryside and its culture. From that year on, we returned every September in time for the vendemmia (harvest). Bill gave a winemaking course to a small group of American wine students, and Fran introduced the budding winemakers to the culture and history of Tuscany. Then we began our Sicilian journey in 2008. In telling the story of Sicily, we came to understand yet another truth it shares with Chianti. Like Sicily, Chianti as a name is universally known, though as a place it is essentially unknown and misunderstood. In telling the story of Chianti, we knew from the beginning that it was essential to explain its origin and evolution as both a place and a wine region. The expansion of the Chianti wine zone to encompass most of Tuscany in the early 1930s effectively blurred the distinction between the original Chianti region (from then on known as Chianti Classico) and the external Chianti region (with the exclusive right to use the name Chianti for its wine), consisting of multiple subzones. We have met many a Tuscan, Italian, and American who are unaware of the differences between Chianti Classico and external Chianti. Remarkably, Chianti was among the first legal appellations of origin for wine in the world. The publication of this book will coincide with the three hundredth anniversary of that historic (but long forgotten) milestone of 1716.
And so, in our search to discover Chianti we were determined to take the wine road less traveled. In addition to visiting dozens of Chianti Classico wine estates and participating in organized tastings of Chianti Classico wines, we navigated the historical archives and libraries of Florence and Siena to search for clues to the transformation of Chianti as a wine region. We also met with Tuscan historians and former senior officials of the Chianti Classico consortium as part of our research. Along the way, we were privileged to speak with older Chiantigiani whose sharecropper families had tended Chianti’s vines for centuries. In our travels we built a real and virtual library of treasured volumes dating from the fourteenth century to the present day. In the process, one clue led to another and the story of Chianti emerged like a statue from a block of marble. Only by studying the history of agriculture in Chianti and Tuscany (including garden design) did we learn about a virtually unknown Tuscan named Girolamo da Firenzuola, who lived in Florence in the mid-sixteenth century and wrote the earliest known Italian agricultural treatise to mention (and laud) the vine variety Sangioveto (Sangiovese), the essence of Chianti Classico wine. Firenzuola, along with subsequent authors, also explained how to make wine in the style of Chianti (more on that later).
In the pages that follow we tell the unified story of Chianti by interweaving and sharing our mutual discoveries along the way. (Unless otherwise noted, all translations in the text are by us.) The first four chapters trace the origin and evolution of Chianti from the Etruscan civilization through our age. Fran wrote chapter 1, “The Original Chianti,” and chapter 5, “Chianti’s Hidden Roads,” a personal narrative of our journey around the region with one of its most knowing guides. As we did in The World of Sicilian Wine, we have chosen to infuse this and other chapters with the narrative voice, to bring the historical, cultural, and sensorial ideas of our story to life. We coauthored the historical chapters (2, 3, and 4) that explore Chianti from the seventeenth century to the present day. Bill wrote the vinicultural chapters: 6 (on geography), 8 (on viticulture), 9 (on enology), and 10 (profiles of modern-day Chianti Classico wine estates by subzone). He also penned chapter 7, “The Secret of Sangiovese,” which unearths the long-lost secrets of Chianti Classico’s noblest vine variety. We conclude with a detective story in chapter 11, “The Medici Code,” in which Fran reveals Chianti’s most complicated and existential secret of all. She wrote this preface and the afterword as well, to respectively begin and end our tale. Our mission has been to unlock the mystery and essence of Chianti. For we believe that an understanding of place is essential for an authentic appreciation of its wine. It is with profound respect and affection for Chianti and its winegrowers that we have chosen to tell the story of Chianti in this way. They deserve no less.
By 1442, Florence’s leading civic humanist, Leonardo Bruni, had completed his twelve-book History of the Florentine People. During and after his lifetime, he was recognized as Italy’s first modern historian. Through the depth of his research and the honesty of his scholarship, Bruni endeavored to reveal the true history of Florence from its earliest origins. He was not content to repeat, or to let stand unchallenged, ancient myths and legends. In the spirit of Leonardo Bruni, and in the quest to reveal the true Chianti, we humbly do the same.
Bill Nesto, MW, and Frances Di Savino