If you ever drink a wine from Chianti Classico from Tuscany, Italy, you may notice an interesting symbol of a black rooster on the bottle. In fact, ALL wines from this prestigious region must have that on the label.
One thing that is so great – and fun – about studying to be an Italian Wine Scholar withe Wine Scholar Guildis the amount of fascinating historical information included in the text. One such example is the legend of the Black Rooster. Here’s what I learned:
The Gallo Nero (Black Rooster) was the historic symbol of the League of Chianti and has become the symbol of the wines of Chianti Classico. It comes from the legend of how the rival city-states of Florence and Siena resolved the issue of control of the very valuable wine region of Chianti. For centuries it was considered to be an area of top-quality wines and thus valuable to both – and worth fighting over.
Rather than keep fighting over this vauable and and who controlled it, they came up with a solution.
To resolve the dispute over the political boundaries of Florence and Siena, the legend says two knights were chosen, each was to leave a dawn and ride as far as he could and wherever they met would be the boundary. The starting time would be when the roosters crowed. Sounds pretty fair, right?
To resolve the dispute over the political boundaries of Florence and Siena, the legend says two knights were chosen, each was to leave a dawn and ride as far as he could and wherever they met would be the boundary. The starting time would be when the roosters crowed. Sounds pretty fair, right?
The Sienese chose a white rooter and the Florentines chose a black rooster. But the Florentines kept their rooster in a small, dark chicken coop and did not feed him for days! On the day of the ride, the black rooster was freed and started to crow well before dawn. The Florentine knight got an early start and met up with his counterpart in Fonterutali, only 7,5 miles or 12 km from here the Sienese knight had started, This allowed the city-state of Florence to control nearly all of the Chianti region.
Look for that black rooster when you buy a bottle of Chianti Classico and remember when you are making a start time, synchronize your watches, and do not rely on roosters!
