Chianti – Perhaps the Best Red Wine

People who love wine should visit Tuscany in Italy at least once in their lifetime. This region located in central Italy has everything that you need if you enjoy delicious food and quality wine. Tuscany is probably one of the most important parts of Italy, both for wine and tourism, because this is the place where renaissance began and with it some of the most beautiful pieces of art in human history.

Famous Red Wines from Tuscany

Tuscany is home to three of the most famous italian red wines – Chianti, Brunello di Montalcino and Nobile di Montepulciano. Although they are all based on the same wine grape variety – Sangiovese, they all have completely different taste. It is the different types of Sangiovese grape that make these wines different as well as different types of micro climate and the terrain of Tuscany.

The history of Tuscan winemaking is very reach and dates back to the 13th century when the first written evidence about winemaking was recorded. Interesting fact is that some of the winemaker families from that period still exist and continue to produce wines. Because of the great worldwide popularity of Chianti wine during the 60s and the 70s a lot of wine producers with dubious quality started to place Chianti labels on their wines.

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The Chianti Quality

Soon the quality of Chianti became very low and its popularity started to decline. Winemakers started to work on the quality and during the 90s this wine was once again on the well known level, becoming one of the most popular types of wine in the world. However, thanks to this popularity some of these wines became very expensive and exclusive.

Chianti is the Most Famous Tuscan Red Wine

Chianti is certainly the most famous name in Tuscany and there is no wine enthusiast that has not heard or tasted some of these red wines. They have crossed a long path – from being an ordinary wine consumed while eating spaghetti or other pasta to becoming exclusive red wines that are usually served on special occasions.

As we have mentioned before Chianti wine has a long history and it probably had its biggest changes after the Second World War when this wine was affordable and easy. As the time passed people wanted more from this wine and it gave less. The “problem” can be traced in the 19th century when baron Ricasoli practically invented the formula for modern day Chianti production – a blend of red grapes (Sangiovese and Canailo) and white grape varieties (Trebbiano and Malvasia).

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The idea was to get freshness by adding these white grape varieties. But the winemakers started to use white varieties more and more and of course the taste changed.
Another problem was that vineyards were started to expand from the original region where Chianti came from (Chianti Classico) to the neighboring territory. This confusing situation that worsened the quality of Chianti made some winemakers to take some steps that will definitely change the quality of Chianti.
Some of them started to use international white grape varieties while others stopped using white grape.

Nowadays Chianti is a very dry wine that is best felt while eating some (italian) food. Chianti wines have fruit aroma (most often cherry aroma). Aged wines are even more tasteful.