The Epic Tale of Regaining Chiantishire: The Ricasolis’ Triumph!

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Francesco Ricasoli’s story is extraordinary, and not just in the context of the Chianti Classico heart of Tuscany in which he operates. His family were nobles at Charlemagne’s court and owned so much land between Siena and Florence that they were at one point barred from holding public office because they were deemed not sufficiently impartial. The ban did not last. In the 19th century, Bettino Ricasoli became the newly formed second Prime Minister of Italy. He is also famous (among us drunkards) for drawing up the rules for producing Chianti.

The family seat, the Castello di Brolio, high above the village of Gaiole, was built in the 12th century but razed in 1478 by the Aragonese. At the top of his hill now stands a 19th-century redbrick, crenellated reconstruction of a medieval castle with so many rooms that Ricasoli says he has never bothered to count them. It is open to the public and is used only for the most exclusive events, such as his daughter Sofia’s wedding (which she was still recovering from during my visit there last month).

But even more extraordinary is what happened to all of this estate in the 1970s and 1980s. The family, under financial pressure, sold the Ricasoli brand to Canadian beverage giant Seagram. Others and I watched in horror as its reputation withered, a process that showed all signs of continuing under subsequent owners, Australian producer Hardys. Brolio Chianti Classico became a discount supermarket staple.

In 1993, Francesco Ricasoli, at the time a photographer shooting commercials for brands like Valentino and Ray-Ban, decided enough was enough. He managed to buy back the embattled brand, encouraged by Lapo Mazzei, the prominent boss of Fonterutoli, another famous Chianti Classico property half an hour away in Castellina in Chianti.

“You could see the sky through the roof of the warehouse. Everything had to be rebuilt,” says Ricasoli, who quickly began renovating the vineyards. “He had bought back a huge basket of risk.”

Today Brolio’s reputation has been restored. Along with local scientists, Ricasoli has not only been researching the quality of the plant (prioritizing Tuscany’s indigenous Sangiovese over the Bordeaux varieties once popular in the region), but also the estate’s 19 types of soil, the quality of the cork, and even the precise ratio between oxygen and sulfites. He has already begun replacing the vines he planted in the 1990s with improved clones that his research has identified. Another project with the University of Pisa aims to create a scientifically determined aroma profile for each wine.

Its pride and joy are its distinctly different single-vineyard Chianti Classicos, which are priced even higher than Castello di Brolio, its classic offering in the top Chianti Classico category known as the Gran Selezione. Single-vineyard Chianti Classico is now a major trend throughout the area. According to Ricasoli, “it’s like having a different angle of the region without changing the components.”

Ricasoli was born and raised in the Castello and clearly has a deep love for each of the estate’s 1,200 hectares. When she would drive me through rains (2023 brought Tuscany’s wettest spring and early summer) she would stop and marvel at the views. “Look! There’s Siena,” she nodded her approval towards the horizon.

Since the buyback, Lapo Mazzei’s son Filippo has been CEO of both Brolio and Fonterutoli, sharing the latter role with his brother. francesco mazzei. To an outsider this seems like a strange arrangement, but Ricasoli explains it like this: “I knew very little (almost nothing) about vineyards and the wine business and I asked Filippo to help me. We have known each other since childhood and trust between us has never been in question. The proof is that after more than 30 years, our friendship and trust have not failed! Today I am still involved in the daily decisions and operations, and Filippo is by my side for any important decision that needs to be made.”

It’s not normal business practice for rival companies to be run by the same person, but these Tuscan estates are not normal businesses. If Ricasoli can trace his family’s relationship with wine back to 1141, the Mazzei of Fonterutoli can claim that it was their ancestor Ser Lapo Mazzei who, in 1398, first documented a wine called Chianti in correspondence with a Prato merchant. Perhaps such historical genealogies make modern business rivalries seem somewhat inconsequential. Presumably, the important thing for both the Ricasolis and the Mazzeis is to continue the family tradition by making better and better wine to stay in the game. (And not sell any part of the business to foreigners.) Ricasoli insists that he has never taken a lira out of the business.

The Mazzeis, two brothers and two cousins ​​from the next generation, are not resting on their laurels either. They keep adding new vineyards and now have 117 hectares of vines in seven very different locations in three of the 11 Chianti Classico districts that, for the first time, are allowed on vintage 2020 wine labels. Part of the rationale for such a disparate expansion of Fonterutoli is to spread the risk of hail, which is becoming increasingly common in Chiantishire.

As Filippo and Francesco Mazzei, along with Filippo’s son Giovanni, gave me a tour of the vineyards closest to the elegant winery designed by their architect sister, we ran into Howard, the Devon ranger. “Hello, Marchesi,” he called happily. (All the winemakers mentioned here have titles.) Our route had taken us through the small town of Castellina past an ugly animal feed plant. “It’s there to remind us how beautiful the rest of Chianti Classico is,” said Giovanni, responsible for its new 100% Sangiovese Ipsus wine, which has its own cellar and a jaw-dropping price of more than £200 a bottle.

Chianti Classico winemakers are on a roll. At the end of the last century, many of them felt inferior to the wave of new producers in Bolgheri, on the Tuscan coast, since super-ripe reds from Bolgheri based on Cabernet and Merlot Bordeaux grapes were all the rage then.

But in warmer times, Chianti Classico producers can despise the heat of the Tuscan coast and treasure its much higher altitude and cooler climate. And now there’s a newfound respect for Sangiovese, Chianti Classico’s signature grape, partly thanks to Sangiovese’s higher plant research and partly due to a worldwide wave of enthusiasm for indigenous rather than imported grape varieties. Starting in 2027, the minimum proportion of Sangiovese in any Chianti Classico will be raised from 80 to 90 percent. (It used to be much shorter.)

The best wines from the producers used to be the so-called Supertuscans, wines that contained a high proportion of French grapes. But now, an all-Tuscan heritage is something to be proud of, as Francesco Ricasoli and the Mazzeis can attest.

Tasting notes, scores and suggested drink dates in the purple pages of JancisRobinson.com. Some international distributors in wine-searcher.com

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