Letter from Tuscany Richard Baudains

‘Having a history to recount is indispensable to wine marketing’

THE GRAND DUkE of Tuscany Cosimo III (1642 – 1723) may have been the least charismatic of the influential Medici dynasty, but he does have one major claim to fame. In 1716 he issued a decree that defined the geographical borders for the production of what we can assume were the four most important wines of that period: Chianti, Carmignano, Pomino and Val d’Arno di Sopra.

The significance of the law is twofold. Firstly, it established that wine names be derived from their places of origin, and secondly that only wines from a defined area could be entitled to the name of that area. In other words, that Chianti (the wine) comes from Chianti (the hilly region) and only from there. The concept seems obvious to us today – it is the rationale that now underlies wine denominations around the world – but as far as anyone knows, Cosimo’s decree was the first to establish the principle.

It is interesting to compare the geography relating to Cosimo’s decree with that of modern DOC/Gs. Chianti Classico covers a wider area today, but the villages cited in the decree (Greve, Panzano, Radda, Gaiole and Castellina) are still considered the heart of the historic vineyard area. The boundaries of Carmignano – a small DOCG northwest of Florence, which makes a wine based on Sangiovese and Cabernet – are substantially unchanged. Pomino today is a minuscule DOC, but the area that Cosimo describes corresponds almost exactly to the modern Chianti Rufina DOCG zone. The Val d’Arno di Sopra is the least well-known, and in fact it was virtually a winemaking no-man’s land until the recent creation of a DOC of that name.

Cosimo’s decree was in reality an appendix to an earlier one issued in the same year that granted extensive powers to a kind of anti-fraud commission intended to oversee the production of wines destined for export. Wine producers of today will very much relate to the convoluted bureaucratic system introduced by this system, and to the vagueness of the terms of definition, as well as the draconian penalties threatened for non-compliance. There are some things that never change in Italy.

To celebrate the 300th anniversary of the decree, which was issued on 24 September, the consorzi of the four DOC/Gs nominated by it convened a conference on the same day this year in the imposing setting of Florence’s Palazzo della Signoria. In a word cloud of the speeches we heard, ‘marketing’ would figure prominently, in big black letters.

In the booming acoustics of the frescoed Sala del Cinquecento, a professor of history and the presidents of the various consorzi explained to us that having a history to recount is indispensable to wine marketing. Leading importers confirmed that wines with history appeal to American and Canadian consumers. On the other hand, Tuscan wine lacks appeal to Chinese wine drinkers, because they are not aware of its history.

The Chianti Classico consorzio also announced a new collaboration with the Comité Champagne in France (details to be revealed at a future date), and we broke for an excellent buffet lunch.

A second round of speeches in the evening was presided over by the Chianti Classico consorzio. There was a brief history of the denomination (is it naïve to think that its success has something to do with the fact that modern Chianti Classico is really rather good?). Then an admirable exposition of the grounds for Chianti’s application to become a UNESCO World Heritage site, followed by a video message from the Minister of Agriculture. On stage, Prime Minister Matteo Renzi exhorted Chianti to increase its exports and pledged that the government would be at its side in this endeavour, before exhorting ‘Long live Italy, long live Chianti’ and jogging up the aisle of the theatre.

The mayors of eight Chianti villages signed a protocol for the creation of a UNESCO Distretto Rurale classification for Chianti (details to be revealed at a future date).

To finish, an uplifting choral concert followed by a convivial supper, after which we all returned to our hotels, in no doubt about the clout and ambitions of Chianti Classico.