Chianti question - newbie here

[tiny ham]

Hello - first post and very new to wine tasting. Some friends of ours who are quite knowledgable about wine recommended Chianti. Purchased two bottles of Chianti yesterday - Straccali Chianti and Ruffino Chianti (both 2001). Are all Chianti wines red? TIA

[hotwine]

Welcome to the board, and the world of wine. Yes, all Chiantis are red. They're made from the Sangiovese grape. The Straccali and Ruffino are OK, but a bit harsh. Try a Chianti Classico next time.

[stevebody]

Must weigh in with an OPINION here, which you should take with a whole salt lick:

Chianti, the one Italian wine region almost everyone knows, produces some of Italy's most pedestrian wines. Some great ones, too, but an increasingly smaller percentage. You'll get lots of opinions about this and they'll all be valuable bit I URGE YOU to sample outside of Chianti and see for yourself. The Veneto, Veronese, Umbrian, Calabrese, and even Sicilian wines are inexpensive (many of them) and quite good. DON'T, whatever you do, form an opinion of Italy based solely on Chianti. It would be like concluding that elepants are all skinny by feeling the tails.

[Thomas]

Tiny ham, yes, all Chianti is red; yes, they are produced from sangiovese grapes, but that is part of a blend of other grapes that are allowed by Italian wine regulations to go into Chianti.

As to Chianti being "some of Italy's most pedestrian wines," perhaps, but that depends on one's point of view, which unfortunately isn't always an informed point of view but rather a biased outlook on wine.

Chianti is but one of hundreds of Italian wine regions (and thousands of Italian wines) that have merit and that have problems. The only way to really understand such a large concept as Italian wine is to explore it by consuming wines from as many regions as you can, deciding which are the ones you like best, and going on from there. Accepting an opinion as fact is not the best way to learn about anything, let alone the wide subject of Italian wine.

[lizardbrains]

Oooohhh, Stevebody... I really like the elephant tails thing!

Sorry I can't help regarding Chianti - as I've never tried it.

-Elizabeth