Chianti: the history of the most famous wine in the world.
There are no certainties about the origin of the term Chianti understood both as a place and as a wine.
It seems that the name may derive from the Etruscan word CLANTE which means water, of which the Chianti area is very rich. In fact, the first reliable historical evidence concerns the Etruscans who settled in what is nowadays the Italian region of Tuscany.
Historically, the first time the name CHIANTI is found is in a parchment from 790 AD. therefore centuries after its alleged actual appearance.
As regards Chianti’s birth as a vine, we are talking about a historical period around 2,000 BC.
The fertility of the Chianti area soil, its composition (which we will talk about further) and the strategic position made it the ideal cradle for the birth of one of the most sought after wines in the world.
Since then, the Chianti vine cultivation has never stopped and has been preserved from barbarian incursions, wars, raids and fires. The enormous economic and cultural value of an ideal area for the production of excellent wine was immediately understood.
In the following centuries, the defense and perpetuation of the vineyards in the Chianti region were also entrusted to clerical classes of Benedictine and Vallombrosan monks who protected them at the cost of their own lives. The value of the grapes, the hunger of the population, the wandering herds of livestock created a constant danger from which to protect oneself at all costs. First with dry stone walls, then with fences, finally with actual walls and night guard. Violation of property was severely punished by law. Even careless surveillance was punished by the owners, sometimes even with torture. In short, the business of Chianti wine truly became very precious right from the start.
And in fact, as always happens, the tax authorities also began to take an interest and tax the vineyards in Chianti based on their value in the land register already around the year one thousand.
