Chianti, what do you know?

I bought a Chianti a while ago and decided yesterday was the time for it to make an appearance. Poor thing, I should of brought it out 3 years ago. The Chianti, a 2003 from Via Firenze is a reserve but it was disappointing. Not from the standpoint that it was undrinkable. Oh, no it takes a really bad wine to be undrinkable. But it didn't have the flavor I've grown to know and love about that type of grape.

A good Chianti is one that hugs the tomato sauce in a baked ziti. It snuggles with yummy lasagna. It dances with raviolis in marinara sauce. This would not have been a good date. The cork had a chemical smell to it. The aroma from the glass wasn't the same, thank goodness, but the aroma was flat. When moving it around your tongue, it lacked the crisp berry and spice I've come to know with this Italian wine.

Maybe it didn't cellar well, being over 6 years old. But for $25 a bottle, I still expected it to have some of that ol' get up and go.

Well, in honor of the Chianti, I thought I'd lay before you some facts....and a little poetry.

Remember Imbibe and Enjoy!

Chianti is a red wine produced in Tuscany, Italy. It was historically associated with a squat bottle enclosed in a straw basket, called a fiasco ("flask"; pl. fiaschi); however, the fiasco is only used by a few makers of the wine now; most Chianti is bottled in traditionally shaped wine bottles. Baron Bettino Ricasolii, the future Prime Minister in the Kingdom of Italy created the Chianti recipe of 70% Sangiovese, 15% Canaiolo and 15% Malvasia biancaa in the middle of the 19th century.

The first definition of a wine-area called Chianti was made in 1716. It described the area near the villages of Gaiole, Castellina and Radda; the so-called Lega del Chianti and later Provincia del Chianti (Chianti province).

During the 1970s producers started to reduce the quantity of white grapes in Chianti. In 1995 it became legal to produce a Chianti with 100% Sangiovese. For a wine to retain the name of Chianti, it must be produced with at least 80% Sangiovese grapes.

Brie And Chianti At Midnight

In a tiny hotel room in a city renowned
for its medieval bridges, we share quiet
caresses, Brie and Chianti at midnight.

We have learned silence on our
journey together, passing through
lands where our words were useless.

My eager hands navigate your face
in the darkness: an oddly joyous act,
like reading a Bach sonata in Braille.
from http://blog.ridgewine.com/2009/07/10/brie-and-chianti-more-wine-in-poetry/

CHIANTI - LAUGHTERS OF YESTERDAY
Another hot summer night Its still warm outside Sitting on my verandah Drowning in the wine Waiting for the stars To show up on the sky My bottle of chianti Is glowing in the light Like a rare red hibiscus Swaying slowly in the wild Listening to the wolfes* Playing mournfull guitars Straining hard to listen To laughters of yesterday.
http://www.hackorama.com/badpoetry/chianti.shtml