“DIVORCE IN CHIANTI”: AFTER 78 YEARS CHIANTI CLASSICO VINEYARDS WILL FINALLY PRODUCE EXCLUSIVELY GRAPES FOR GALLO NERO LABEL WINES”…”CHIANTI CLASSICO COLLECTION” ON STAGE IN FLORENCE, FEBRUARY 16-17

A legislative measure has established a kind of “Divorce in Chianti”, which the Chianti Classico area had been awaiting for many years. The measure states that in the Gallo Nero territory only Chianti Classico wine can be produced and it is no longer possible to produce other Chianti wines. The Chianti Classico Wine Consortium will be at the “Chianti Classico Collection” (event dedicated to the press and wine producers) with this important innovation, on 16 and 17 February at the Stazione Leopolda in Florence, presenting a preview of the years 2009, 2008 and the 2007 Reserve.
“After 78 years we have been able to find a solution that effectively separates the Chianti Classico from other Chianti wines,” says Giuseppe Liberatore, manager of the Chianti Classico Wine Consortium, “finally breaking the umbilical cord between two different wines without legal battles or agreements only partially shared, but with the awareness of their mutual differences and their originality. A fact,” he concludes, “which can definitely be defined as historic.“

This measure definitely formalizes, no ifs, ands or buts, the exclusive recognition that the wines from Chianti Classico area are distinct from the other Chianti wines all over Tuscany. The road to this historic goal, however, was very long and hard. The first step was accomplished by the Ministerial Decree of 1932, which identified seven distinct areas of production of Chianti wine. The wines produced in the geographical boundaries of Chianti received territorial recognition, origin and birthrights well before the system of naming was introduced, allowing the association to use the word “Chianti” the adjective “Classic” in order to distinguish it from the others. In 1967 the decree, which recognized a single denomination of controlled origin of Chianti, came into force, in which “Classic” was regulated as a wine with special characteristics (confirmed, of course, in 1984 by DOCG).

But, it is not until the Ministerial Decree of 5 August 1996, that the Chianti Classico designation becomes autonomous, with separate zones and production regulations different from other Chianti wines. Today, this historic and definitive step toward complete autonomy from the rest of the Chianti wines is formalized in the amendment of 164/1992, namely in the law framework of the Italian wine world. In the text of imminent approval (Article 6 paragraph 1) the new Basic Law of Italian wine adds a specification that in the production area of Chianti Classico “vineyards can not be planted or registered as Chianti DOCG.”
This specification will also be reflected in the Chianti Classico wine, which introduces its own paragraph “in the production area of Chianti Classico, other vines can not be planted nor registered Chianti DOCG, nor Chianti and Chianti Superior wines be produced.”