​Chianti Classico’s return to its glorious past

Everything I wrote yesterday obscures the fact there actually was a time when Sangiovese was not considered a mediocre variety in need of ‘amelioration’ at all. One of Sangiovese’s longest-standing custodians is Ormanni in the Chianti Classico subzone of Poggibonsi. This once-enormous estate, founded in the 12th century by the Ormanni family and mentioned in Dante’s La Divina Commedia, was a completely self-sustaining entity, producing...