Available From UC Press

Chianti Classico

The Search for Tuscany's Noblest Wine

Bill Nesto, Frances Di Savino

“An important new book on Chianti Classico: Winners of the André Simon 2013 award for their book The World of Sicilian Wine, Nesto and Di Savino have produced the investigative, scholarly and detailed book that Chianti Classico has long deserved. Nesto and Di Savino are brilliant historic investigators. . . . A must-read for anyone seriously interested in wine.”—Walter Speller, JancisRobinson.com

This book tells the story of the ancient land named Chianti and the modern wine appellation known as Chianti Classico. In 1716, Tuscany’s penultimate Medici ruler, Cosimo III, anointed the region of Chianti, along with three smaller areas in the Florentine State, as the world’s first legal appellations of origin for wine. In the succeeding centuries, this milestone was all but forgotten. By the late nineteenth century, the name Chianti, rather than signifying this historic region and its celebrated wine, identified a simple Italian red table wine in a straw-covered flask.

In the twenty-first century, Chianti Classico emerged as one of Italy’s most dynamic and fashionable wine zones. Chianti Classico relates the fascinating evolution of Chianti as a wine region and reveals its geographic and cultural complexity. Bill Nesto, MW, and Frances Di Savino explore the townships of Chianti Classico and introduce readers to the modern-day winegrowers who are helping to transform the region. The secrets of Sangiovese, the principal vine variety of Chianti, are also revealed as the book unlocks the myths and mysteries of one of Italy’s most storied wine regions. The publication of Chianti Classico coincides with the three hundredth anniversary of the Medici decree delimiting the region of Chianti on September 24, 1716.

Winner of the following awards:
2016 André Simon Food & Drink Book Award: Drink Books Category
2017 International Organization of Vines and Wine: Jury Award, Monographs
2017 International World Cookbook Awards: Sustainable, For the Public Category
2017 Gourmand International World Cookbook Awards: Drink Special Awards Category

Bill Nesto is a Master of Wine and a founder of the Wine Studies Program at Boston University, where he is also a Senior Lecturer.

Frances Di Savino is an attorney with a background in medieval and Renaissance studies and is Bill’s partner in life and on the wine road. Bill and Frances coauthored The World of Sicilian Wine, which won the André Simon Book Award in 2013.

“Following their excellent Sicily book, Bill Nesto and Frances di Savino have tackled Chianti, one of the most fascinating, ancient, and traduced production areas in the world of wine, with their characteristic forensic thoroughness and enthusiasm. You will find you are reading not just about a wine but about a large chunk of Italian social and economic history over a period of centuries, including, most importantly, the present one, which, like every present, is the product of its past.”—Nicolas Belfrage, MW, author of The Finest Wines of Tuscany and Central Italy

360 pp.7 x 10Illus: 9 maps, 7 illustrations

9780520284425$39.95|£34.00Hardcover

Sep 2016