All about Chianti including laws, sangiovese and territorities

Probably one of the most known wines in all of Italy is Chianti. If you have ever been to Tuscany you have experienced utter beauty with it's rolling hills, cypress trees, olives groves and never ending row of vines.   

Chianti, along with it's many different mutations, is definitely one of my favorites, along with the wines from Piedmont that I will cover another time. Chianti been around since B.C. and has changed so much over the years, especially in recent decades. Some of you may remember Chianti from the old straw bottles known as fiasco, but some say to stay clear from those as it demonstrates some of the older production of Chianti and it has come so far over the years that there are many better wines to explore.

For those of you that don't know, Chianti is made up of the sangiovese grape, but there are many other mutations of sangiovese such as Brunello, known for making one of the highest quality wines in all of Italy, Brunello di Montalcino. Prugnolo Gentile is another, typically known for making Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, as well as some other mutations such as, Morellino and Sangioveto. The variety of these styles along with different soils and elevations throughout the region produce many different styles of Chianti.

There are a couple different designations like Chianti Classico DOCG, which are all the wines produced in the regions between Florence and Siena. The Chianti Classico area's main communes are Greve, Radda, Gaiole and Castellina. There is also Chianti DOCG, which are for all the other winemaking regions that come from 6 subzones. If it's outside those zones it will just say Chianti, otherwise you'll see these subzones listed on the label: Chianti Colli Pisane (Pisa area), Chianti Colli Fiorentini (Florence area), Chiantii Colli Senesi (Siena area), Chianti Colli Aretini (Arezzo area), Chianti Montalbano (NW area of Tuscany) and the most popular and known to be the best quality, Chianti Rufina.

Chianti can be made up of 100% sangiovese, but at least 75% must be sangiovese. The rest can be up to 15% red with canaiolo, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot and up to 6% white, usually malvasia and trebbiano. Chianti riserva have a requirement of aging at least 27 months and being 12.5% without any white grapes blended. Most Chiantis are medium bodied, with a lot of cherry notes and tartness. There is usually mid to high acidity along with some tannin. You may even get some tobacco notes.

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Rosso di Montepulciano from Dei winery

As many of you know I am getting married in Italy in October.  I  wanted to write about some of the various towns that I will be visiting, including Montepulciano featured today.

Piazza Grande - Montepulciano

Last weekend I went out to eat in the seaport at Salvatore's in Boston and enjoyed a bottle of Dei Rosso di Montepulciano.  Two famous wines produced in this area include Vino Nobile di Montepulciano and Rosso di Montepulciano. 

Rosso di Montepulciano and Vino Nobile are made up of at least 70% of the Sangiovese grape clone, Prugnolo Gentile. For those of you that don't know, Sangiovese is the primary grape used in making Chianti. Don't confuse these wines today with the grape Montepulciano. That actually comes from the Abruzzo region.

What are the differences between Vino Nobile di Montepulciao and Rosso di Montepulciano?

Some of the biggest differences between Vino Nobile and Rosso di Montepulciano are the aging requirements and yields.  Rosso di Montepulcianno is aged in a much shorter time for about 6 months where Vino Nobile di Montepulciano is required to be aged at least 2 years with at least 6 months in the bottle. Riservas age for 3+ years. There are usually larger yields for Rosso compared to Vino Nobile and the vines are typically younger. With that comes cost as typically Rosso di Montepulciano are less money than Vino Nobile.  Vino Nobile earned DOCG status back in 1980 while Rosso is DOC status. 

Some big producers to keep an eye out from this region are Avignonesi, Poderi Boscarelli, Contucci, La Braccesca, Dei and Poliziano. I have visited a couple of these estates in the past and their quality was fantastic! 

Pairings with Rosso di Montepulciano and Vino Nobile di Montepulciano

 

Tuscany in general, especially around this area, is known for

their Bistecca alla Fiorentina. It's from the white chianina cows and is served rare. I'm not one for rare meat, but it's phenomenal. Enjoy it with some of these great wines and the experience is a complete joy!

bistecca alla fiorentina -  sourced from Flickr

If you have visited this region leave a comment with where you have been and what you have enjoyed. I love to hear of recommendations and experiences.

alleys of Montepulciano

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Maine Wine Trail (Savage Oakes, Breakwater Vineyards, Cellardoor)

My closest girlfriends surprised me with a weekend away at the Maine wine trail for my bachelorette party. It’s always interesting and fun exploring local wineries that are not well known like the rest of the world’s infamous wineries and then being pleasantly surprised. 

Our first winery, Savage Oakes Winery, was our smallest production winery of the day. This winery has always been a farm and decided to open a winery back in 2002 when they were trying to find a way to maximize their blueberry fields that expanded into grape growing. They started off with 2 acres and now have grown to 4 acres and over 10 varieties grown. They are located in Union, ME, 30 miles east of Augusta. Many of their wines are 100% Maine grown grapes. Some of my favorites here was Georges River made with the Cayuga grape, and First Kiss, a dessert style made from St. Pepin grapes. You can also buy their meats on-site as well.  

The second vineyard was Breakwater Vineyards located in Owls Head, ME. What a gorgeous town to start and a beautiful vineyard to top it all off. This was my highlight vineyard of the day. Not only for the beautiful establishment and area that they are in, but also the quality of the wines here were really great. Their hospitality was also top notch. This winery has 3,000 grapevines with 32 acres producing 1,500 cases, so obviously much bigger production. Some grapes are grown on-site organically, but others are imported from NY including the Finger Lakes and the North Fork.  They follow a 3 tiered system where they grow their grapes only on the bottom.  They also are the only vinifera producer in the state of ME.  

I enjoyed both their oaked and unoaked chardonnays.  They had a real interesting rosé called Rosé Rugosa that was almost like a dessert style, but lighter. Their pinot noir had nice fruit with a beautiful finish. A big hit here with the ladies was their hard cider, but its not my style. Our last tasting was their Breakwater Blues just released, paired with chocolate, which brought out such a different side to the wine and the chocolate.  It was a beautiful way to spend a tasting where we were privately served on their patio outside their garden and vineyards by our wonderful host Martha. 

Our last stop was at Cellardoor Winery in Lincolnville, ME. This winery was started in 2007 on a 200 year old farm that had been recently restored. The owner decided to leave her career and follow her passion.  Something I’m sure we all wish we would do! Cellardoor has a great commercial kitchen and entertainment space where they hold many events as well as a great tasting room with many gifts and a chance to sample some local products of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. They have about 5.5 acres of vines planted with about 15,000 cases of wine produced annually.  They also import grapes as well from NY along with WA and CA. 

We got a ride in “Dumbo” their oversized golf cart down to the vineyards. Their tasting list was very extensive so we got a variety of samples all great in their own way. They had an interesting blueberry wine with 10% maple syrup that was a rather tasty way to taste local products in a different way. I grabbed a glass of Gewurztraminer to tour the vineyards, which was delicious! 

The tough part about growing grapes in this part of the country is our climates. We aren’t privileged with the longer growing seasons like other parts of the country. Here in the northeast many of the wineries are growing cold climate grapes as I had mentioned like in the Finger Lakes as well. So unless you have gone to visit wineries around the northeast you may not be familiar with the some of the names from shopping in your local liquor store. Red grapes such as Marechal Foch, Leon Millot, Frontenac, Marquette and white grapes like Cayuga, LaCrosse and Frontenac Gris. Try them if you get a chance and support your local wineries!