Sangiovese is the most widely planted of the Italian varieties (63,000 ha; 10% of all plantings) and is the basis for some of the most important wines in Central Italy. I had previously written about the variety but ongoing research has yielded additional information, requiring an updating of the original material, as well as the way in which it is presented. Towards that end, I will present a more comprehensive view of the variety in four separate posts: clones, viticulture (broader Tuscany in the 14th century; Chianti, 15th to 19th century; Chianti, 20th century), winemaking, and wines. I continue herein with 15th- to 19th-century Chianti viticulture.
Chianti wine has its deepest roots in the period between 1450 and 1550 and a “culture of carefully managed vineyards of Sangiovese in Chianti and Val di Greve dating back to at least 1552” (Nesto and di Savino). Alberello and Testucchio (discussed in a previous post) were two of the most important vine-training systems utilized in the region during the covered period.
Vine Training
Alberello Vine Training
Alberello-trained vines, normally supported by chestnut stakes, were planted in rows along the gradient of the steep hills of Chianti with distances of 1 meter between vines and rows. Olive and fruit trees were sometimes planted among the vines, with the olives especially prized due to their value. According to Nesto and di Savino, the pre-Phylloxera Lamole vineyard was specialized and was planted at more than 10,000 vines/ha. Chianti was so tightly associated with low-training that the method was called all'uso del Chianti when employed elsewhere.
Low-trained vines on steep hillsides will result in steady erosion of topsoil and, over time, a loss of productivity. The farmers in Chianti addressed that problem in two ways. First, they planted the vine rows along the contour of the slope. This impeded the flow of water (and soil) downslope and allowed for more water to be absorbed into the soil. In the case of even steeper slopes, the farmers built stone walls that "would hold back the land and create terraces."
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| Alberello-trained vineyard with chestnut staves and terraces (For example purposes only; actually a Mt. Etna vineyard) |
Constructing these terraces required "... backbreaking work of countless sharecroppers to break up and excavate the rocks and strata of hardened clay, limestone, and sandstone below the top soil" (Nesto and di Savino). The terraces were configured as follows:
- Vine rows ran parallel to the curve of the walls
- Terrace walls preferably faced south providing cover from the cold north winds
- Radiant heat stored in the rocks warmed the vines, thus advancing ripening
- Moisture seeping through the walls served as a natural form of irrigation
- These terraces ranged between 5- and 12-meters wide; the steeper the incline, the narrower the terrace.
Controlled water movement down the terrace levels was of critical importance and was facilitated by a variety of drainage schemes.
Testucchio Vine-Training System
Whereas the alberello is a low-trained system, the Testucchio (local Tuscan name for the hedge maple) was a system of "running vines up trees with tree branches or reeds stuck into the ground to support the vines planted in between ... The testucchi formed a wall of vegetation that usually surrounded a field where other crops were grown or covered a field themselves, in parallel lines." Such a system is illustrated below.
This system was a massive producer of fruit -- in addition to protecting the vines from heat in the summer and absorbing excess humidity during rainy periods -- but, unfortunately, they were rarely fully ripe and generally were the source of low-quality wines.
The ideal locations for this system were soils deep and fertile enough to support the tree growth. In the first half of the 1800s in Chianti, this system was used in the fertile plains and in the low hills. This system was increasingly employed as the mezzadria system became more institutionalized (Nesto and di Savino).
Mezzadria
Mezzadria was an evolution of feudalism where the landowner and sharecropper (mezzadro) collaborated in a profit-sharing scheme wherein the landowner provided raw materials, implements, and housing and the sharecropping family:
- Grew grapes and olives for the production of wine and olive oil
- Grew vegetables and wheat
- Raised animals for milk and cheese
- Raised chickens for eggs
- Raised other animals for food.
According to Nesto and di Savino, the 1779 period saw the “solidification and expansion of the mezzadria system in Tuscany and Chianti in particular.”
Vine Planting — Replacement and New
The growers had a number of means available to them during this period for replacing vines or planting new vineyards.
Vine Replacement
There were three methods for vine replacement: propagginazione, capogatto, and magliolo. The chart below illustrates the functioning of the initial two systems.
The magliolo system makes use of 2-year-old budwood, approximately 1 meter in length, with the short stub of a 1-year-old cane at one end. The unencumbered end of the budwood is forced into the ground until only the stub is left exposed. This approach is used in a variety of planting scenarios.
Planting New Vineyards
The system for planting new vineyards is similar to the magliolo system described above as regards the implantation of budwood but differs in that the budwood used has been subjected to a type of maturation prior to planting.
According to Nesto and di Savino, lengths of cane from 2-year-old canes are selected and the end with the oldest wood placed into moist, loose soil. After 10 to 12 months, the wood is removed from the soil and is shown to have grown a tuft of roots (That tuft of roots resembles a beard — barba — hence the name barbatella (singular).). This wood is now ready for planting.
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| Barbatella |
In the Fall prior to planting, a trench 1-meter-wide, and of similar depth, is dug along the contour of the hillside and is halfway filled with rocks; largest rocks at the bottom, smaller ones at the top. The barbatelle are placed in the middle of the trench -- equi-distant from each other -- which is then filled out with loose, rich dirt. The vines are often planted in a quincunx pattern (Nesto and di Savino).
The Quincunx planting system is, essentially, a square planting system with a fifth plant in the center.
As described in quincunx.it:
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| Quincunx planting system (http://e-tesda.gov.ph/) |
In viticulture, the quincunx is a planting pattern: the vines, trained as bushes, are arranged in staggered rows that repeat the lines hinted at in the quincunx. It was the favorite system of the ancient era, because at the same time it met the requirements of order, efficient use of the space and aesthetics: the vineyard looks symmetric regardless of the terrains shape.
It is a way of doing viticulture that is very expensive in terms of energy and economic resources: machinery, in fact, can only be employed to a limited extent. Furthermore, to grow and maintain a healthy bush vineyard planted in the quincunx pattern, it is essential that the growers have a long experience in the area where they operate.
Vine Diseases and Infestations
The region confronted a number of vine diseases and infestations in the latter half of the 19th-century and the early part of the 20th. The first instance was powdery mildew in the 1852 - 1853 period. “The traditional remedies proved to be completely unfounded and useless and were unable to prevent the destruction of the vineyards. Only the new fungicidal substances containing sulphur gave concrete results, but in order to use them, it was necessary to overcome the consolidated opposition of the farmers who were against the rise of such techniques, not only because of the cost, but also because they required the acceptance of the scientific theories of the time” (Mocarelli and Piñeiro).
Downy mildew followed soon after and its solution was the use of copper sulfate. The onslaught of these two diseases overwhelmed the capabilities and knowledge bases of the mezzadri, forcing the region towards a more scientific approach to viticulture.
The mother of all vine problems was the Phylloxera louse. First evidenced at Castello di Brolio in 1885, it had, by 1932, touched every corner of the region. As was the case throughout Europe, the solution was replantation with vines cleaved to phylloxera-resistant rootstock.
In addition to its economic impact, phylloxera caused a loss of biotype diversity (due to abandonment) and a re-ordering of the cultivar landscape. Sangiovese, for example, became the dominant red variety while Trebbiano Toscana substituted for Malvasia Bianco on the white-variety front.
Viticulture Issues in the 19th Century
In the 19th century it was commonly held that the wines of Tuscany, Umbria, and Marche were of poor quality (Mocarelli and Piñeiro):
- The maritate system resulted in vines married to tall plants full of leaves which, in turn, prevented the full ripening of the grapes
- Wide variety of grapes grown in bulk
- Different types of grapes, though ripening at different times, is harvested simultaneously and co-fermented
- Mezzadria system promotes quantity over quality
- As late as the 1880s, there were still few farmers cultivating low vineyards and specialized vineyards were still rare.
Bettino Ricasoli, proprietor at Castello di Brolio and father of the modern Chianti recipe, identified, as early as 1833, a set of mistakes commonly made by the growers of Chianti and advanced relevant solutions. The mistakes (Nesto and di Savino):
- Vines planted too densely within rows
- Leaving heads without cordons forced canes to grow directly from the trunk
- Sowing crops among the rows allowed vegetation to bury grape bunches
- Leaves stripped form low-trained vines too early.
From the middle of the century, Ricasoli had been engaged in the promotion of agriculture capable of raising the economic destiny of the country. In his Regolamento agrario (1843), he advocated that (Nesto and di Savino):
- Vines be trained low on hills and where exposures were excellent
- Testucchio system be used with discretion near streams and in flat areas.
“Guided by his belief in the technical and scientific renewal of agriculture, Baron Ricasoli transformed his Tuscan “Castle of Brolio” into an oenological laboratory to create Chianti” and “ succeeded in convincing the farmers to modify obsolete cultivation criteria.”
Summary
Chianti wine had its deepest roots in the period between 1450 and 1550 and a “culture of carefully managed vineyards of Sangiovese in Chianti and Val di Greve dating back to at least 1552” (Nesto and di Savino). Alberello and Testucchio were two of the most important vine-training systems utilized in the region during the covered period.
Low-trained vines on steep hillsides will result in steady erosion of topsoil and, over time, a loss of productivity. The farmers in Chianti addressed that problem by planting the vine rows along the contour of the slope and, on steeper slopes, building stone walls that "would hold back the land and create terraces."
In the 19th century it was commonly held that the wines of Tuscany, Umbria, and Marche were of poor quality. Bettino Ricasoli, proprietor at Castello di Brolio and father of the modern Chianti recipe, identified, as early as 1833, a set of mistakes commonly made by the growers of Chianti and advanced relevant solutions.
By the end of the period, the region had confronted and mitigated powdery and downy mildew but phylloxera was still an ongoing scourge; its solution was known, however, and was being implemented.
Bibliography
Luca Mocarelli and Manuel Vaquero Piñeiro, Viticulture in the Italy of the Mezzadria (Tuscany, Umbria and Marche) in A. Silvia, et al., Ed., A History of Wine in Europe, 19th to 20th Centuries, Volume I: Winegrowing and Regional Features, Palgrove, 2019.
*Draws heavily on Nesto and di Savino, Chianti Classico.
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