Wine

Enchanted Country

Sebastian Morello on the pleasures of Chianti

Ever since members of the English aristocracy started travelling through the area in the 17th century, in their attempt to recapture the religious and cultural treasury they had lost at the Reformation, the Chianti Hills have captivated the Anglo-Saxon mind. Grand touring nobles found in that enchanting countryside a landscape sufficiently different from what they knew to enthral them, and sufficiently like what they knew to console them. Those rolling hills covered with cypresses, vines, and olives trees, with ancient terracotta villas dotted about, warmed the hearts of English romantics, and have continued to do so ever since. To this day, the speaking of beagle packs can be heard on the weekends, and gentlemen wear hunting pinks when riding to hounds. Most importantly, the wines of the region immediately agreed with the palate of the English, and among those today who split their time between there and their native Albion, it is known as ‘Chiantishire’.

The Chianti wine zone is now big, very big, but the original zone that was established in 1716, almost exactly halfway between Florence and Siena, remains well-defined and produces perhaps Italy’s finest wine: Chianti Classico. It is important to know and understand the distinction between Chianti and Chianti Classico, for there is a significant qualitative difference between them. The latter is made under much stricter conditions, and is generally a deeper, more complex, subtle, elegant, balanced, more teasingly tannic, less tart wine, with a longer finish. It often benefits, it should be noted, from a little aging. Chianti Classico is nearly always a blend dominated by top-quality Sangiovese (some are 100% Sangiovese), aged in oak, with a life-expectancy of ten to fifteen years. It is easy to spot a Chianti Classico, as it always has the famous Black Cockerel on the label of the bottle.

The (likely apocryphal) story of the Black Cockerel of Chianti is rather interesting. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Florence and Siena were at war, and both sought control of the Chianti Hills (frankly, I sympathise with them: if one is going to fight, let it at least be over vines). The constant battling, however, eventually grew tiresome. To bring the dispute to an end and finally settle the territories of the warring cities once and for all, it was decided that, on an appointed day, a Florentine knight and a Sienese knight would ride out from their respective cities at daybreak, fixing the boundary between the two cities wherever they happened to meet.

The rule for both knights was that they could not begin riding before the cockerel’s crow at sunrise. The people of Siena chose a white cockerel and the Florentines chose a black cockerel. In the days preceding the race, the Sienese let their cockerel roam free and treated it with whatever it wanted until it became fat and greedy, whereas the Florentines kept their bird in a small, dark cage and gave it no food. On the day of the race, the black cockerel was so hungry that it woke up early and made a terrible racket in the hope of obtaining something to eat, crowing well ahead of dawn. This allowed the Florentine knight, well within the rules of the race, to leave his city while - fifty miles away the Sienese knight slept soundly.

Thanks to his head start, the Florentine knight met his opponent in Fonterutoli, just seven miles away from Siena. For centuries thereafter, Florence controlled nearly all the Chianti territory, leaving the Republic of Siena to expand southwards (until Siena was captured by the Spanish in 1555 and immediately given to Florence by King Philip II to pay off his debts to the Medici).

The Chianti Hills have always - as one can well imagine from the story above - been deeply connected with Florentine history, and consequently with the history of our whole Western civilisation. In those hills, Dante wandered contemplating eternal punishment, temporary purgation, and infinite beatitude; St Catherine entered mystical matrimony with the Saviour; Pico della Mirandola considered the dignity of man while in excommunication, the Medici planned their financial takeover, Savonarola imagined a Florentine New Jerusalem, and Machiavelli played cards in the taverns and plotted the corruption of political science. This region is inseparably bound up with so much of what we identify as our civilisation and its history, and Chianti wine lets us visit those hills by travelling through the bottle, like meeting a friend via Zoom.

I recommend Marks & Spencer’s Poggio Tosco Chianti Classico Riserva. It is a jolly nice red at an affordable price (£12 a bottle). This Chianti Classico is a wellbalanced, well-oaked, full-bodied blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Canaiolo, and the dominant Sangiovese. Stuffed with cherry, blackberry, chocolate, vanilla, and spicey hints, this wine - as you might expect - goes very well with anything Italian, especially lasagne or a sourdough-based pepperoni pizza. Buon appetito!