Chianti Classico: for 60% of producers, wine is “sustainable” when it is guardian of the territory

A territory that generated beauty with a landscape whose “system of Villa-Fattoria” is nominated for Unesco which produced agriculture and economy, mainly thanks to wine, and tourism respecting its community that can be “sustainable”. This territory is  Chianti Classico, today among the most important districts of wine in Italy, and in the world with 6,800 hectares of vineyards out of a total of 70,000, between Siena of the Middle Age, and Florence of the Renaissance, where 486 wine producers of which 345 make the entire supply chain, produce 35-38 million of bottles each year on average going to 160 countries for an economic value of district, which, with wine as pivot around which oil, agriculture, restoration and hospitality turn, is estimable at over 1 billion of euros. At the guide of all this, there is one of the most ancient Consortiums of Italy with a century of history behind (celebrated in 2024 with the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella, at the Quirinale, in Rome), and which, after the bet won by Gran Selezione, the peak of the qualitative pyramid achieving resounding successes of critics and market, and the Uga-Geographical Units, the result of the zoning, on the label (San Casciano, Montefioralle, Panzano, San Donato in Poggio, Castellina, Vagliagli, Greve, Lamole, Radda, Gaiole, and Castelnuovo Berardenga), launched a new environmental, social, and cultural “Sustainability Protocol”, foreseeing 58 criteria with the aim, in the future, to put in the labels of wines which will be certified a dedicated symbol.
According to a survey by Consorzio Chianti Classico, presented at “Chianti Classico Collection”, which, today and tomorrow, at Stazione Leopolda, in Florence, during “Anteprime di Toscana” - “Tuscany previews”, unveils the last vintages of Chianti Classico, Chianti Classico Riserva, and Chianti Classico Gran Selezione which will exit on the market during the year (and, where WineNews is collecting the voices of the territory in a video which will be online in the next days, and from which, we will explain you our best tastings between the wines of over 200 present producers, ed), “sustainable starting from tomorrow” is not the code word of the Black Rooster. Strong attention is paid to sustainability already starting from today, also by just looking at the data of how many member companies replied to the survey regarding it: 48% of those operating all along the supply chain, from the vineyard to the bottle representing 53% of Chianti Classico vineyard. Actually, one can well say that sustainability in Chianti Classico is a real “habitus” that is well tested during the years, looking at the emerging data.
The current photography of the denominations is articulated into three different declinations of sustainability: environmental, social, and cultural, reflecting the three cornerstones of the new Protocol of Chianti Classico (presented to the press in May 2024 during the celebrations of the Centenary of the Consortium). As for the production of quality wine, all begins with work in the vineyard. Already today, two out of three companies practice planting the rows of vineyards, a fundamental action to fight the erosion of the soil, and the impoverishment of the same. Three companies out of four are committed in preserving the ecosystem in the vineyard reducing the implementation of weedkillers and chemical compounds, and favoring natural compounds rather than these lasts (37%), or the subproducts of the wine making process (52%). Also, the data about the presence of melliferous plants in about one company out of three, corresponding to 27% of registered hectares, follows this direction. Pollinators are a fragile ring of ecological balance, a real conjunction between the animal and vegetable world, fundamental for the propagation of flora, besides being an important biological indicator in environmental monitoring. This attention is reflected also in organic management: 61% of companies are already in possession of the certification, and an additional 9% is undertaking the path of conversion to organic.
Also during the productive phases, an environmentally aware behavior can affect a lot: almost half of the companies, for this reason, implements alternative energetic sources (45%), is committed in the reduction of the weight of bottles (65%), in addition to the reuse of materials such as glass and paper (54%).
Wine brings with itself cultural, traditional, and historical values which link it to the territory in which it is produced. The landscape as point of union between nature and anthropic intervention plays a fundamental role as cultural element: for this reason, the recovery, and the maintenance of ancient traditions such as dry stone walls (44%), of terracings (38%), and of white roads (74%) represent an active and constant commitment towards the protection of the territory which overcomes the boundaries of vineyards. This theme is confirmed to be crucial also at a level of perception by member companies among the possible definitions of “sustainable wine”, therefore, 60% declared to strongly agree with the identification in the protection of biodiversity, and of the landscape.
This is linked to the concept of cultural sustainability, the innovative direction of Chianti Classico Protocol. The landscape of Chianti is, therefore, a mosaic alternating primitive nature and human intervention. Here, wood prevails (two thirds of the territory), and to this, cultures of vineyard and olive trees, in addition to arable land, are interposed. But, the presence of the man is also expressed in the complex network of historical buildings, parks, boulevards, farm networks, and gardens which embellish the territory in a today still visible sketch narrating the history of rural Tuscany in the last 600 years. The maintenance and the restoration of all this is carried out by almost all the companies (79%). Today, exactly those farms live a second life, often used as dwelling for workers in wine companies (38%).
The attention towards workers is, therefore, one of the cornerstones of the concept of sustainability: from the guarantee of gender equity (39% of employees are women), to the composition of company staff with 92% of direct employees, mostly resident in the territory, or in the bordering municipalities (73%), to the activation of paths of social inclusion (37%). Territories grow if sociality and citizenship increase, and, therefore, the Protocol that the Consortium proposes looks attentively to the theme of residency, and aims to increasingly make the profit of the main economic activities grow.
“Our philosophy has always been that to transfer the territory into the wine glass, and our commitment in the conservation of the territory is actual since centuries. We will take a path of sustainability which is based on the concept of preservation of the territory from an environmental point of view, but whose look enlarges up to understanding also social sustainability, and, an innovation which is, for us, particular, i.e. the cultural one – explains Giovanni Manetti, president of Consorzio Chianti Classico (and, guiding Fontodi) - it is with this new look that we want to observe our vineyards, our woods, and our villages giving the name to Additional Geographical Units, new more restricted areas characterizing typology Chianti Classico Gran Selezione”. “Sustainability is a new lens through which one can observe our territory – explains director of the Consortium Carlotta Gori – already today, the attention and the care towards the territory is very high, but as everyone, we have improvement margins. I believe that a crucial point of our protocol is that to look at our territory with new eyes: cultural sustainability distinguishing ourselves since centuries is more than ever actual, and we want to make it intelligible also for consumer putting on the label of wines of who will certify a dedicated symbol”.
It is for all these reasons that the new “Sustainability Protocol” of Chianti Classico can be at the basis not only of wine production, and of the protection of the territory of the Black Rooster, considered to be as the most beautiful in the world by many, but also of a new communication. A communication far from that too much technical language, almost “virtual”, which, up to today, took people away from the world of wine. A communication that has to link wine to history, nature, culture, Italian cuisine, conviviality, and sociality. Because there is no wine without table, and vice versa. And, from the Etruscan banquet to the Renaissance one, from the tables of nobles and popes, up to today, Tuscan wines have always been protagonist, surrounded by the products of their territories. And, this is Italian culture that world loves, and which we export in the world, and distinguishes wine, with its centuries of history behind that can’t be forgotten from the rest of alcoholic drinks. And, this is the way of communication, which, finally, can make wine the “means” to narrate to the world the beauty of Italy, and its territories.