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The Chianti Classico is the territory in
the center of Tuscany between the two cities of Florence
and Siena. This area includes the entire municipalities
of Castellina, Gaiole, Greve and Radda in Chianti, and a
part of Barberino Val d’Elsa, Castlenuovo Berardenga, Poggibonsi, San Casciano and Tavarnelle Val
di Pesa, for a total of 70.000 hectares (a hectare is
2.47 acres). Most of the territory is covered by woods,
the Chianti Classico is the hilly area at an altitude
which lies between the 250-600 meters above the sea level, the climate is continental without relevant
thermic excursions, the yearly precipitation is around
the 800-900 millimeters of rain; the land, stony and not deep, with some important
slopes, is made up of sandstone
on the higher grounds and of clay-limestones in the lower lands. The particularities of the
climate, the grounds
and the altitude makes the Chianti Classico a region
which is appropriate for the production of high quality wines: 10.000 hectares are dedicate to vineyards and
6.972 of these vineyards are listed in the Albo dei
Vigneti (register of vineyards) for the production of the
Chianti Classico DOCG (controlled and guaranteed
denomination of origin). The DOCG Chianti Classico uses
four different grape varieties, among which the most
important is the Sangiovese for the percentage employed (from 75 to 90%) and its
typicalities; it is a vine which
comes from central Italy with red grapes, it produces
ruby red wine, closed to garnet red when aged, it has the
fragrance of spices and small wild fruits, a good structure, elegant, round and
velvety. Together with the
Sangiovese grapes there is a part of Canaiolo (5-10%), a
red grape, and two white grapes, the Malvasia and the
Trebbiano (2-5%); other red grapes, listed by the DOCG laws, can be used up to a 10%. The DOCG statutes put
important restrictions on the production, regarding the
plants (not more than 3 kg. per plant), as well as every
hectare (75 quintals of grapes, more than 52,50 hectoliters), the minimum alcohol content of the wine
(12’ for the young wines, 12,5’ for the Riserva-reserve) and the date of introduction to
consumption (1 June after the grape-harvest, 1 November
for the members of the Consorzio). The "Consorzio
del Marchio Storico - Chianti Classico", is a
co-operative established by 33 producers in Radda in
Chianti in 1924; among its targets it has the
qualification and the promotion of the product. Ever
since the foundation its guarantee label distinguishes
the bottles of the Chianti Classico produced by the
members and the "Gallo Nero", the black cockerel, the historic symbol of the military league of
the Chianti, active on this territory since the XIV century. Today the members are over 600 (250 of these
produce wine with their own label) and represent over 80%
of the total production of Chianti Classico. To receive
the Gallo Nero label the members have to follow the
technical indications of the co-operative and present
their wines for evaluation to the tasting committee and
the strict chemical analysis. |
CHIANTI