CHIANTI: Secret To Long Life - HISTORY

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                                           Chianti: Secret to Long Life, Says Ancient Recipe






Rossella Lorenzi,
Discovery News
Sept. 13, 2008

       

Secret to Long Life?
| Video: Discovery Tech 

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/09/15/chianti-elixir.html

Sept. 15, 2008 -- The elixir of life may be a concoction of honey, cherries and secret herbs infused in a full Chianti wine, according to a centuries-old recipe discovered in one of Italy's oldest pharmacies.

The 18th century-old recipe was discovered in an old manuscript found among the shelves of a pharmacy in Asciano near Sienna dating back to 1715.

"My ancestors left several manuscripts with formulas for digestive drinks, but this one struck me because of its ingredients. I knew it had strong scientific basis," said pharmacist Giovanni De Munari, who found the old recipe from behind a small shelf in his Tuscany pharmacy.

Upon finding the recipe, De Munari brewed the beverage, and came up with a "low-calorie, highly digestive alcoholic infusion which tasted delicious."

The main ingredient in the elixir is the Sangiovese grape, which is the soul of Chianti wine. Until the middle of the 19th century, Chianti was based uniquely on Sangiovese grapes. Around 1850, Baron Bettino Ricasoli codified the Chianti formula and called for as much as 15 percent white grapes like malvasia.

"In our recipe, we only have Sangiovese grapes. This is much more like the famous Brunello variety which grows in this area," De Munari said.

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The elixir's formula echoes recent scientific studies that credit resveratrol, a compound which is found in the skins of red grapes, with helping to prevent heart disease and other age-related illnesses.

"Red wine does help prevent cardiovascular disease and may prevent other diseases of aging. It's still not clear if there is enough resveratrol to have the same kind of anti-aging effects in humans as we see in mice, but it is thought that a combination of resveratrol and other plant 'polyphenols,' as well as a bit of alcohol, are beneficial to health," David Sinclair, a pathology professor at Harvard Medical School, told Discovery News.

Sinclair pointed out the eldest-ever man, Antonio Todd, was an Italian, who died at age 116.

"My ancestors may not have known the names of the chemicals, but they knew that red wine, and Chianti in particular, had therapeutic properties," said De Munari.

The other ingredients in the infusion are regional natural products, and all have antiseptic and antibacterial properties, according to the pharmacist.

"They combine with resveratrol to achieve such a convincing result. We are so impressed that we are now working with a distillery in northern Italy to make the elixir on a commercial scale," De Munari said.

The elixir will be presented to the scientific community at the "Wine and Health" congress in Montalcino next month.

However, not all the ingredients will be revealed.

"It's a secret formula, like Coca Cola's recipe. Indeed, pharmacists can create great drinks," De Munari said.



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Related Links:



Rossella Lorenzi's blog: Archaeorama

How Stuff Works: Wine Basics

Chianti Grapes

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TOSCANA (TUSCANY)

CHIANTI GEOGRAPHICAL REGION




From the 14th century till 1932 the geographical region consisted of three small communities all in the province of Siena:



Radda in Chianti

Gaiole in Chianti

Castellina in Chianti




Nowadays is common to name Chianti all the central part of Toscana.

Often Chianti geographical area is confused with the Chianti wine area or with the Chianti Classico sub-area.

 Unlike for the wine-area, there is actually no statement describing the actual geographical Chianti area.

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VALDELSA

(part of Chianti Colli Fiorentini sub-area).

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Traditional viticulture at Villa Gaiole in Chianti

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                                                     C H I A N T I   W I N E S






Chianti is Italy's most famous red wine, which takes its name from a traditional region of Tuscany where it is produced.

It used to be easily identified by its squat bottle enclosed in a straw basket, called 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.

Low-end Chianti is fairly inexpensive, with a basic Chianti running less than US$10 for a bottle. More sophisticated Chiantis, however, are made and sold at substantially higher price points.

Today, Chianti is generally consumed at room (technically "cellar") temperature, like most other red wines.

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The first definition of a wine-area called Chianti was made in 1716.


It described the area near the villages of Gaiole in Chianti, Castellina in Chianti and Radda in Chianti; the
so-called Lega del Chianti and later Provincia del Chianti (Chianti province).

In 1932 the Chianti area was completely re-drawn.

The new Chianti was a very big area divided in seven sub-areas:



Classico,

Colli Aretini,

Colli Fiorentini,

Colline Pisane,

Colli Senesi,

Montalbano and Rùfina.



The old Chianti area was then just a little part of the Classico area, being the original area described
in 1716 about 40% of the extension of the Classico sub-area and about 10% of all Chianti.

Most of the villages that in 1932 were suddenly included in the new Chianti Classico area added immediately
or later in Chianti to their name (the latest was the village of Greve changing its name to Greve in Chianti in
1972).

 
The popularity and high exportability of this wine at the moment of introduction of the DOC, 1967, was such
that many regions of central Tuscany didn't want to be excluded from the use of the name. As a result the
Chianti wine-area got about 10% more territory.

Wines labeled Chianti Classico come from the biggest sub-area of Chianti, that sub-area that includes the old Chianti area.

The other variants, with the exception of Rufina from the north-east side of Florence and Montalbano in the
south of Pistoia, originate in the respective named provinces:



Siena for the Colli Senesi,

Florence for the Colli Fiorentini,

Arezzo for the Colli Aretini and

Pisa for the Colline Pisane.



In 1996 part of the Colli Fiorentini sub-area was renamed Montespertoli.

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Rural Tuscany near San Gimignano

(part of Chianti Colli Senesi sub-area.)

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CHIANTI VERGIGNOLO











                                 Many different kinds of wines are produced in Chianti:




 

Until the middle of the 19th century Chianti was based solely on Sangiovese grapes.

During the second half of the 19th century Baron Bettino Ricasoli, who was an important Chianti producer and, in the same time, minister in Tuscany and then Prime Minister in the Kingdom of Italy, imposed his ideas.  From that moment on Chianti should have been produced with



70% Sangiovese,

15% Canaiolo and

15% Malvasia bianca

(Malvasia bianca is an aromatic white grape with Greek origins).



During the 1970s, producers started to reduce the quantity of white grapes in Chianti and eventually from 1995 it is legal to produce a Chianti with 100% sangiovese, or at least without the white grapes.
 However, for a wine to retain the name of Chianti, it must be produced with at least 80% sangiovese grapes.

It may have a picture of a black rooster (known in Italian as a gallo nero) on the neck of the bottle, which indicates that the producer of the wine is a member of the "Gallo Nero" Consortium; an association of producers of the Classico sub-area sharing marketing costs[.

Since 2005 the black rooster is the emblem of the Chianti Classico producers association[.

Aged Chianti (38 months instead of 4-7), may be labelled as Riserva.

Chianti that meets more stringent requirements, (lower yield, higher alcohol content and dry extract) may be labelled as Chianti Superiore.

Chianti from the "Classico" sub-area is not allowed in any case to be labelled as "Superiore".

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Castello di Brolio,

owned by Baron Ricasoli, inventor of the 19th century Chianti wine

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Chianti is not the only traditional wine made in Tuscany, and sangiovese is usually the base of most red variants like



Vino Nobile di Montepulciano,

Carmignano (together with other grapes),

Morellino di Scansano, etc., while

Brunello di Montalcino is based on a variant called sangiovese grosso.



There are also new wines, based on sangiovese and some popular French grapes that are usually dubbed "Super Tuscans". Due to rule changes, some of these wines (particularly the pioneering Tignanello) could legally be labeled as Chianti if they would reduce the quantity of international grapes under 15% (or under 20% in the case of Chianti Superiore), though many producers of these wines
have chosen not to do so.

The word "Chianti" can be used as a semi-generic name in the United States if the place of origin is clearly indicated next to the word to avoid consumer confusion. However, with the popularity of varietal labeling, semi-generic names are rarely used today, even on jug wines.

Due to the wine's relative cheapness, its easy-drinking qualities, and the frequent use of the empty fiasco as a candleholder, Chianti is very strongly identified with Italian American cuisine, especially the "red sauce" variety pioneered by southern Italian immigrants in the late 19th and early 20th century.



FROM:

wikipedia

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