Liver & Fava beans anyone?
When your mind thinks of Italy, you are whisked away to visions of rolling
Tuscan Hills in Central Italy, with an endless bounty of delicious Italian
pasta and food located outside the courtyard of an Italian Villa. There, all
around you are friends and family, laughing, shouting and having fun,
enjoying one another’s company. And of course, the wine everyone is
drinking is Chianti.
A few decades ago, this “Chianti” wine would come in an odd shaped bottle
with a little wicker basket on the base. Maybe you’ve seen one in your
local Italian restaurants. You can still buy these wines today, but they
represent the bottom rung of the wine quality ladder. In fact, up until the
1980’s, Chianti wines were made to be cheap and easy drinking. They
were the perfect complement to Italian cuisine and made in an abundant
supply. The Italian’s decided to take a page from the French Wine
Industry book and come up with a Quality Classification system that rated
their Chianti’s and other wine styles made in Italy. This classification
system is known as “Denominazione di Origine Controllata or DOC and it
has brought about a higher standard in Italian wines. The letters "DOC"
will be noted somewhere on the bottle if the wine qualifies. Nowadays,
Chianti wines are no longer cheap tasting wines, with the best being quite
structured and having the ability to last a few years in the cellar.
When you see the words “Chianti” on the label of a wine bottle, it is really
referring to a wine region and not the grape that is used to make the wine.
Chianti is not a type of grape at all, but rather the central region of Italy
(Tuscany) that is divided up into eight sub regions that all specialize in
making Chianti wines. Chianti is made from the Sangiovese grape, which
is arguably, Italy’s most famous wine grape. Aside from Chianti, you will
also find this grape in great abundance in Italian wines named, Super
Tuscans or Brunello di Montapulcino’s. These are typically very
expensive and highly sought after wines by collectors and wine
connoisseurs alike.
Sangiovese grapes are really only grown in Italy with any great success.
In California, which also shares a Mari-time climate like Italy possess, has
not had great success with the grape and has so far, been unable to
produce very many wines of a high caliber. Other places like Australia
have been experimenting with the grape too, but none can compare with
the wines made in Italy. I have tasted some wines made from Sangiovese
here in Texas and I was quite shocked by the results. Llano Estacado’s
Viviano wine, which is a blend of Sangiovese and Cabernet Sauvignon,
comes to mind. This grape holds quite a promising future for Texas wines.
One reason Italy has boasted the greatest success with Sangiovese is that
the grape is finicky and needs to be in a climate where the temperatures
remain consistent. In Tuscany, the temperature in the evening does not
drop very much from those during the daytime. This could be one reason
California has not had great success with it. Their evenings are quite a bit
cooler. As anyone that has been through a few Texas summers will attest
to, our Texas evenings can be every bit as hot as the daytime. Maybe that
is why we are starting to see some good results with Sangiovese in Texas.
I imagine that the Texas High Plains would be a great place to grow the
grape with its high elevation above sea level. Elevation is a key to the
Tuscany region in Italy’s success with Sangiovese.
Chianti wines have a bit of charm with a supple texture that ranges from
medium to full-bodied wines and flavors of cherry, raspberry, plum, anise
and a little spice. It tends to be quite a fruity wine making it no small
wonder that it pairs very effectively with Italian cuisine. It is still very
affordable when compared to other wine styles, like say, Cabernet
Sauvignon, representing a good buy for the money.
So invite your friends and family over. Cook up a plate of Lasagna or
spaghetti and Italian bread dredged in olive oil. Break out a few bottles of
Chianti and let the fun begin. Maybe even throw in a good movie for
measure. Might I suggest “The Silence of the Lambs”? Even one of
Hollywood’s most feared villains enjoys a nice Chianti with liver and fava
beans!
