We could say that he was one of the first ‘metrosexuals’ in history.īut he was also a great aficionado and drinker of any great and sublime wine that would pass by his table. Tall, good-looking and powerful, he literally took the maidens by storm. The truth is that the Grand Duke, because he was ‘graceful’, was ‘the gentleman’, apart from taking great care of his appearance. Once we arrive, we will observe with innate curiosity how the Grand Duke Consimos III de Medici was the creator and developer of the first wine-growing area called CHIANTI. But this, and I don’t want to go into it any further, would make for one of my longer and more extensive passages of history.īut today we are talking about the CHIANTI, so let’s take the time machine and go back to 1816. In other words, they already knew, and in what way, what the vine preferred, a need for soils that were poor in organic matter and at the same time high in mineral substances.Īfter the fall of the Roman Empire, today’s Italy became a kind of multitude of city states. But with the peculiarity, and this was made very clear in this Ancient Roman Law, that a vineyard would never be planted in a territory, field, land, valley or mountain where any other biological crop could be planted. In other words, what we know today as a ‘vitisvinifera’. ‘In every conquered territory, and before proceeding to the settlement, as a referential motif (just as Noah did as soon as the waters subsided and he touched land) he must always plant a vineyard’. They were great consumers of wine, to the point that one of the main and most curious laws they had was nothing more and nothing less than the one related to wine, which stated that: The Romans, as we all know, appropriated the ‘Hellenic Culture’ from the Greek Culture and expanded their empire and knowledge throughout the Mediterranean and practically all of Europe. According to studies carried out and contrasted, they were already producing wine some 3,000 years ago. The Etruscans, a people that preceded the Romans by centuries. Taking into account that Italy as a state is relatively young, it has existed for 160 years, it is true that it is an old, no, very old country, with a millenary wine tradition in which we can already find the origins of these wines. There are a lot of terms and it is not easy to clarify, being very likely to get overwhelmed and (unless we have a good professional at our service) end up not knowing exactly what we are drinking or tasting. To begin with, the average consumer, not to mention the neophyte, can find a multitude of indications with this wine in its name: I propose a walk through the history of Chianti, as simple and pleasant as possible, so that all of us, absolutely all of us, end up knowing what is and what is not an authentic CHIANTI. And this is largely due to the fact that Italian legislation is very confusing and gives rise to a multitude of confusions.īut that is why I am here today, with my now ‘little by little’ known time machine. However, despite being such a famous Denomination of Origin, it remains for many a great unknown outside of the most technical and professional circles. Wines exported to a multitude of countries all over the world, if not practically all of them. Today I propose a journey through the history and ancestral origins of these super wines. Chianti, famous and at the same time unknown. Within Italy we find some 526 geographical indications and, within them, known worldwide, our protagonist today, the CHIANTI, undoubtedly stands out.
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