CURIOSITY'
OBJECT: news, curiosities and leges on Chianti’s D.O.C Vin Santo
The great development of viticulture in the D.O.C. occurred around the mid-15th century thanks to the intervention of De’ Medici family.
In that period, in fact, Lorenzo de’ Medici sings about the wine’s qualities in his Symposioand Canzone di Bacco.
Therefore, wine became a precious good for de’ Medici members who were already merchants and bankers. It was a gift, a commodity, a drink and a symbol.
It was not a casualty that during the renovation of Palazzo Vecchio, the columns, still today admirable in the courtyard of the building, were adorned with vines and grapes in honour of the important family.
Chianti’s Vin Santo, in its various variations, is one of the most famous wines obtained by extremely withered grapes.
Appreciated everywhere, in Tuscany the Vin Santo belongs to the collective memories where it evokes an extinguished peasant culture, characterised by the figure of the sharecropper and the rural family.
The first references to Vin Santo dates back to the dawn of Christianity when, apparently, the drink was particularly suitable for the religious services.
A Sienese legend tells that in 1348, year of the plague, a Dominican friar would distribute wine to the sicks to bring them some relief. From that, the belief that it was a miraculous wine and thus it became “Santo” which literally means “Saint”.
Another interpretation dates the birth of the name Vin Santo to 1439, year of the ecumenic Council hold in Florence by the Pope Eugenio IV whose purpose was to reunite the Easter Church to the Western one, now divided as a result the schism.
At a banquet hold by de’ Medici during the Council, a sweet wine was served that made the Cardinal Bessarione, Bishop of Nicea, exclaim: “But this is xantos”.
He referred to the resemblance with the wine produced in the Xantos island, Greece, but the other guests turned it into the Latin adjective “santus” which literally means Saint.
According to others, the etymology of the word comes from the productive cycle of Vin Santo linked to the most important religious celebration of the Christian liturgic calendar.
In the recent years, Chianti’s Vin Santo has obtained a legal acknowledgment as a category of products.
It is important to underline how the denomination of controlled origin of Chianti’s Vin Santo emphasises the interaction of human elements with the final product.
Despite the variety of Chianti’s Vin Santo products, traditionally, some fundamental steps in the preparation remain. First, grapes are accurately chosen and then are subjected to the drying process on cane mats, known as cannicci, usually placed in the farmhouses and farms’ attics.
These rooms are well aired in order to best bring out the flavours of the grapes. The final result is a must that need to ferment in specific wood containers, known as cantarelli.
Today as in the past, cantarelliare placed beneath the roofs or in attics, where thanks to the strong seasonal temperature ranges the product, undergoing partial and repeated fermentation, finally reaches its peculiar organoleptic and chemical features.
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