It is the first Consortium in the history of Italian wines.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the name Chianti is so famous that it becomes synonymous with Tuscan and Italian wine in the world. The demand is so high that the production coming from the historic area, the one delimited in the 1716 edict by Cosimo III de’ Medici, is not enough to fully satisfy it. This pushes a growing number of regional wineries, and not only, to market wines with the wording “produced Chianti-style”, despite the fact that they are made with grapes and musts that do not come from the original area.
The pressing need to protect their specific identity therefore encourages 33 local winegrowers to come together, to create the first association of wine producers founded in Italy. On May 14th 1924, the Consorzio per la difesa del Vino Tipico del Chianti e della sua Marca di Origine is founded in Radda, and later renamed Consorzio Vino Chianti Classico in 1968.
The founders immediately recognized themselves in a symbol rooted in the community’s collective memory – the legendary Black Rooster, the historic symbol of the ancient Military League of Chianti. This image quickly becomes the brand par excellence of the wines from the district, representing its pride and blazon on national and international markets in the best possible way.