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CHIANTI is a name that resounds in restaurants all over the world where good wines are served. The place name is given to a piece of land characterised by a harmonious landscape whose hills veil and unveil evocative places, where peace reigns supreme.
The ORIGIN of the word “Chianti” is up for discussion. It can be attributed to the Etruscan term “clante” common name given to a person in that language, or to the Latin verb “clango”, sound the trumpets and play the horns, probably referring to the beginning of the hunt.
It’s also quite difficult to reconstruct the HISTORY of this region. For documents that can be found are fragmentary, what follows therefore is an attempt to explain its history to those who already known the region and to those who would like to know more.
In medieval times, Chianti endured conquests by Florence and Siena. Today , it suffers another kind of conquest that one of the tourists foreign and not, who
come here in pursuit of that something extra offered by Chianti as it done over the centuries.
This region is from time immemorial well-loved and populated region. The most ancient testimony of the man’s presence can be found in Poggio La Croce, near Radda in Chianti, around the second century BC. In this same place, there can also be found testimonies to the transhuman shepherds presence during the 11th century BC and of the ETRUSCANS during the 3rd century BC. Due to its favourable climate, its position and its soil’s richness Etruscans decided to settle in the region, taking advantage of its soil and establishing settlements. Their presence has been proved not only by many archaeological finds but also by the evident etymology of the Chianti place names such as Rosennano, Avane, Nusenna and by the local toponymy of family names which end in –na, such as Olena and Ruffenna.
The ROMANS also settled in the Chianti, but we have only a few testimonies of their presence. The ruins of an Etruscan necropolis between the 2nd-3rd century A.C. (near Cacchiano), prove that after the Etruscans came the Romans. We know for example that the Romans divided the region into the municipia of Faesulae and of Arretium (also later of Saena Julia). The toponymy help to confirm, what we have already said, the name of many places ending with –ano or –ana are typical of the imperial age, when the public treasury gave the place the name of the owner, consequently turned into an adjective (Bibbiano, Panzano, Cacchiano). Also if the documents are few, we can affirm with R. Flower that “in the hills and valleys of Chianti, (…) the country life went on as it always had done, but in the place of the fine Roman country house, with their well cultivated estates, the watch-towers and castles of the Lombard barons sprang up at strategic defensive points (…). The landscape of Chianti was surely then characterised (…) by a perennial freshness, a perpetual springtime (…). For if the period between 400 and 700 A.D. was one of the waste and depopulation, it was also a time of self-sufficiency. And it is not difficult to believe that the air of remote rusticity (…) was always present.
The next information we have about this region is from the 715 relates to a boundaries’ dispute between Arezzo and Siena. The decision of the Lombards’ King Liutprando to give some areas to the bishop of Arezzo was changed later because of the Sienese, until 500 years later Arezzo’s supremacy was recognized in this area.
In the 2nd half of the 9th century in Tuscany born the “MARCA DI TUSCIA” (Marquises of Tuscany), a new territorial identity that took the place of the old organisation. The marquises were formally faithful to the Emperor or to the King of Italy, but the Tuscia became an independent state and in this period is interesting to note the diffusion of viticulture in the religious Orders.
To note that the region’s economy was florid as can be evidence proven by the various commercial contracts stipulated.
The origin of the long war between Florence and Siena can be found in the special status of Florence, which comprised not one but two dioceses. As the Chianti region was under the spiritual guidance of Fiesole’s diocese, the Florentines thought that their sovereign right was extended over the borders with Siena’s and Fiesole’s dioceses. The Sienese were naturally worried about this situation, because the enemies were very close to the city’s gates. The first battle was in 1082, when the Florentines accused the Sienese of having collaborating with the Emperor Henry IV during the Florence’s siege. The first treaty between Florence and Siena was stupid, but as we known, in the 1103 the conflict kept on for long time; to come the Chianti a battle-field, not only because it was a borderland, but also because “his geographic conformation made it was suitable for fortification: two real and proper defensive lines came to be created. The castles of Aiola, Cetamura, Cerreto, Selvole and Sesta were part of the Sienese fortifications; those of , Brolio, Cacchiano, Monteluco, Montecastelli, Montemarchi, Rentennano and Tornano defended the Florentine zone.”
Exemplary in the contest of the Florentine conquest of Chianti the story of the castle of Montegrossi –residence of an imperial officer who had military, political and financial control of the surrounding region and was conquered for the first time in 1172 and definitively in 1198.
Carrying on in the narration of the continual CONFLICT BETWEEN THE TWO REPUBLICS, the Florentines succeeded in conquering the castle of Vignale in the 1129, in 1141 took possession of and sacked the suburb out of the Camollia gate (the north gate of Siena). A year later they won the Sienese troops at Montemaggio. Not always the Florentines won; specially since the Conti Guidi – feudatories in Chianti – intervened in the conflict backing Siena up; the Florentines looked for the help of the Sienese feudatories (Cacciaconti, Aldobrandeschi). Those alliances between free cities and feudatories were beyond the Emperor’s control, so that he tried to find the solution.
The Sienese Pope Alexander the 3rd tried to be a peace - counsellor and in 1163 imposed religious boundaries, that should be valid also as political ones; but Florence however during the battle of Asciano 1174 took his revenge and thousand enemy soldiers were taken prisoners.
In 1197 the Emperor died. The free cities of Tuscany formed in a league to defend themself from any tyranny. This league was approved by the Pope and by the feudatories. They made the best of a bad bargain.
Now it’s time to speak about the famous LEGEND OF THE BLACK ROOSTER: since always the symbol of the whole Chianti region. Florence pretended to fix the boundary line with Siena trough the Chianti region and Siena asked to settle the affair by arbitration: the podestà of Poggibonsi was called in as an umpire and stipulated that a horseman should set out at cock’s crow from their respective communities and gallop down the highway.
where they met would be the frontier; “the Sienese selected for the purpose a fine, much-pampered white rooster, which had become unusually plump because of its rich diet. The Florentines chose a black rooster and gave it so little to eat that on the appointed day it began to crow long before dawn. As a result, the Florentine rider set out early and met the other horseman at Croce Fiorentina – only 19 Km far away from Siena -: for this reason, virtually all of the Chianti Classico zone passed into the jurisdiction of the republic of the lily.” Whatever the truth of this tale may have been (Vasari painted a black rooster on the ceiling of the Hall of the Five Hundred in Florence’s Palazzo Vecchio), thanks to the peace of Fonterutoli (1201) and the agreement in Santa Maria at Poggibonsi (“lodo di Poggibonsi”, 1203) most of Chianti passed definitely into Florences’ keeping. But it didn’t mean the end of the hostilities between the two communities. In the 1250 the Florentine Republic divided the region into self-governing jurisdiction called Leghe (League), among them the “Chianti-League”, that joined the villages of Castellina, Gaiole e Radda, that had to defend not only their territory, but also the Florentine one (this division was valid until 1774). In 1384 the Chianti-League established a statute, chose a black rooster in gold field as emblem and we like to remember that one of his first laws prohibited the harvest before the 29th September, in order to preserve wine’s quality and market.
Not only the battles between Siena and Florence but also the national conflicts devastated the Chianti region during the 15th century but also war and invasions: ALPHONSE OF ARAGON invaded trice the territory to extend his dominion and was also spurred in this by Siena; in 1447 his venture wasn’t very worried, but in 1452 and in 1478 he brought a real devastation (Rencine, Castellina Radda e Brolio were conquered). Only in 1483 Florence succeeded in keeping back a big part of the Chianti territory.
This is also the period in which FAMOUS PERSONAGES lived in Chianti: in 1480 was born Giovanni da Verrazzano, he was the navigator who in 1524 discovered the New York Bay and the mouth of the Hudson; also Amerigo Vespucci was born in Montefioralle; 1503 Leonardo started in Vignamaggio with painting the Monnalisa; in 1513 Niccolò Machiavelli retired into his house in Sant’Andrea in Percussina and there wrote “il Principe”; Galileo Galilei had inherited a farm in Chianti and liked his wine; Michelangelo Buonarroti - who was familiar with the region because he probably had inspected it for Florence - during the old age bought through his nephew houses and farms there; Francesco Ferrucci – before defending Florence – had been podestà of Radda. The history of the human events intertwists the history of wine: Francesco Redi celebrated it in “Bacco in Toscana”, Michelangelo presented it to the Pope.
The war joined with the dearth in 1527 and Chianti kneeled down among the incursions of imperial’s and Sienese’s forces until 1554, as the Duke Cosimo declared war upon Siena and France. After the battles of Aiola and San Giusmè the sienese Republic felt definitively and the whole Chianti region – as Tuscany – felt into the hands of Medici (PEACE OF CHATEAU CAMBRÉSIS); “History, as any Sienese tell you, ended in 1557 – that is, when the Emperor handed Siena and its territory over the House of Medici. (…) For, after four centuries of stalwart resistance, the proud old commonwealth was finally thrust under the thumb of its hated rivals. Trough it would be more correct to say that both Siena and Florence had fallen victims to the Medici machinations…” R. Flower; Fortresses changed into country-houses and farms, in which the people of Chianti started again to devote theirself with passion to their land, of which they knew the quality of a wine, that was defined as a very good one also from the French, as Caterina de’ Medici brought it to them as a present. ‘6oo was called the Chianti Wine’s century.
WINE has always been the entre point of the Chianti economy. In 1634 the podestà of Chianti-League issued an edict that forbade to billet the wine to let the price raise and in 1716 the Grand Duke of Tuscany Cosimo the 3rd - for the first time in the world - established with an edict the boundaries of the Chianti wine’s production zone: “From Spedaluzzo until Greve; from there to Panzano, the whole territory of the Podesteria di Radda, it means Radda, Gaiole and Castellina, arriving until the boundary of the State of Siena”.
1774 was an important year because the old Leagues were abolished and surrendered the Community of Castellina, Gaiole and Radda, expression of the local autonomy.
Hencefort to have out of account the wars, Chianti had a period of quiet, during which the people devoted themself completely to the production of the famous “red”.
A Key-character to understand Chianti history during the ‘800 is the Baron Ricasoli, the “Baron of iron”, the owner of Brolio Castle; he made a big change not only in his own farm but also in the wine panorama of his time: he tried to control the working process and proposed a different grapes’ dosage.
As the phylloxera epidemic swept over the French wine market, this brought a new interest for the Chianti: during this period wine of different origin was bottled as Chianti, so that on the 14th May 1924 a group of producers in Chianti assembled at Radda in Chianti to establish a voluntary association to defend and promote their authentic wine. They adopted the name “Consorzio per la difesa del vino tipico del Chianti” (Consortium for the defense of the typical wine of Chianti and its brand name of origin) and now it’s known as the “Consorzio del Marchio Storico-Chianti Classico”. In 1932 the Chianti region was delimitated in 73.043 hectares.
The summer of 1944 brought the war to Chianti and the Germans took possession of the medieval fortresses. The partisans organised themself in a group called “monte amiata”: of interest is the attitude of the Chianti farmers, who received and gave shelter to the partisans, the Hebrews and militaries.
In the ’50 years the agriculture system passed through a very serious crisis, the farmers left the country for the city and the farms’ owners had to take the very expensive paid labour.
In the same time rose the FOREIGNS’ INTEREST for an elegant region, far away from the noise of the city: precursor and supported of this love for Chianti were Mara Scotoni and her husband; they bought in 1947 Ricavo, a big farm used during the war as shelter for the Hebrews,
they restored and made it comfortable and invited there many friends from Swiss, until one day because of an incident with the car, the lady remained alone and changed the farm into a pension, so that she could kept on living there, because she wouldn’t been alone. The guest of Scotoni’s house felt in love for Chianti and started to buy and restore farms in the region; vines were replanted and most of them devoted themself to the viticulture and the region changed deeply again: the farmhouses changed into agriturisms and holiday homes, and turned not exactly back to what they had been in the past – country houses for aristocrats – but something like that: the farmhouses became placed chosen for the spirit’s regeneration from the new rich people, intellectuals, artists and from everyone, who was – and is – in search of a place of quite, far away from the city’s noise.