I love Chianti, Italy's most famous red wine. Yet this crisp red has had to negotiate a maze of legal and stylistic problems in the last 50 years yet despite it all has retained a countrified persona that's best with tart foods.
Chianti can be a bit rustic. It also can be high in acidity and thus works beautifully with tomato-based foods, and it benefits from aeration. So, in some ways it's predictable. But its image can confound Italian wine newcomers.
As its laws have changed, so has its style, and there are several quality designations at the upper echelons that are so confusing they won't be mentioned here.
Updated: Wed Dec 13, 2023