Spaghetti Wine

Spaghetti WINE BY RICCARDO TARABELSI

Chianti has come a long way since its role as cheap “spaghetti wine,” customarily offered in cute bottles wrapped in wicker baskets, suitable for recycling as candlesticks. What was once scorned by consumers and Italians alike is now Italy’s most drinkable (and now complex) wine offering.

There’s always been more to Chianti than those wicker bottles. Chianti’s proud Tuscan heritage goes back more than 700 years. And while it’s still a pretty good spaghetti wine, Chianti in the past generation has fully restored its luster as a serious, world-class wine, becoming one of the first Italian wine regions to earn the DOC (and later DOCG) designation. It also spawned the new and perhaps even more lustrous “Super Tuscan” category.

The Chianti region spans a broad area of Tuscany in Northern Italy, from Florence to Siena and from Umbria to the sea. Chianti must include the following: from 75 percent to 100 percent Sangiovese, and up to 10 percent each of Canaiolo, other local red varieties, and/

or the white Trebbiano or Malvasia. (The inclusion of white grapes, once mandatory, is now optional, and the possibility of 100 percent Sangiovese without any other grapes is also a recent innovation.)

Grapes grown anywhere in the region may go into basic Chianti, but only grapes from the traditional central region, between Florence and Siena, may qualify for the “Chianti Classico” designation, which also calls for slightly longer aging before release. Higher alcohol levels qualify for the title “Superiore,” and longer aging - 24 months, compared with six for Classico and five for regular Chianti - adds the title “Riserva.”

Pick up a bottle of Chianti Classico Riserva, and you’re dealing with (and paying for) something with a lot more strength than a simple pizza or spaghetti wine. These are serious, world-class wines that demand cellar time to show at their mature best.

In addition to the broad Chianti region and the central Classico zone, the Chianti regulations permit special regional labels for wines made from grapes grown in seven sub-regions scattered around the map of Tuscany.

Some of the sub-regions are widely available, while a few are rare enough that I have yet to see them sold outside Italy.

Here’s a quick field guide to help you recognize these rare birds if you see them:

• From Arezzo, Chianti Colli Aretini • From Pisa (yes, the place with the Leaning Tower), Chianti

Colline Pisane

• From the region near Florence, Chianti Colli Fiorentini,

Chianti Montespertoli and Chianti Rufina • From near Florence and the villages Pistoia and Prato,

Chianti Montalbano

• From the historic region around the city of Siena on the south end of Chianti, Chianti Colli Senesi, “Chianti from the Siena hills.” (The words “Colli” and “Colline,” seen in several of the regional names, simply mean “hills.”)

In contrast with the kind of detailed attention that French wine villages demand in detecting and understanding their subtle differences, terroir distinctions among the sub-regions of Chianti is a little more difficult. Perhaps that will come as Chianti’s modern reputation continues to grow. For now, drink the Chianti that’s available here and as more of these sub-regions become available in the United States, we can hone our collective palates to become Chianti Consigliari. You make the spaghetti, I’ll bring the Chianti! Carpe Vino!

Enjoy a pasta and a Chianti at R Wine Bar & Kitchen on 8th Street in Downtown Sioux Falls, where Riccardo and Marybeth are the owners, along with their new property, Brix Wine Bar on Main Ave in the Washington Square Building. Riccardo and Marybeth have three sons, Dante, Berent (fiancée Molli,) and Jaxon, all of whom can be seen working at both of their locations this summer. Contact Riccardo at riccardo@rwinebar.com.