Wine · Medium strength
Chianti Classico
Cherry, leather, and cypress — Tuscany's Sangiovese in its Sunday best.
How to order it: Look for the black rooster seal. Demands tomato sauce or red meat.
Flavor profile
The proper serve
- Serve at 60–65°F
- Bordeaux glass
- 30–60 minutes of air
- Pairs: anything with tomato sauce
- Black rooster seal on the neck
The story
In 1716, Cosimo III de' Medici issued an edict defining the boundaries of Chianti — one of the earliest legal demarcations of a wine region anywhere. The modern blend owes much to Baron Bettino Ricasoli, statesman and obsessive, who in 1872 set down a formula anchoring the wine to Sangiovese. The straw-wrapped fiasco bottle made Chianti the candleholder of a million trattorias and nearly cheapened it to death; the Classico heartland between Florence and Siena, marked by the black rooster seal, spent the late twentieth century clawing back its dignity through stricter rules and serious farming. Today it is Tuscany in liquid form: cherry, leather, cypress, and seven centuries of paperwork.
Adjacent pours