Chianti, what's with the Black Rooster?

If you've ever picked up a bottle of Chianto Classico, you may have noticed that there is a usually a black rooster pictured somewhere on the label. This has nothing to do with the brand of a certain winery, but it IS the 'brand' of the region itself!

'Classico' refers to the historic area where the wine (Chianti) is, or has always been, produced. The Chianti Classico region falls between Florence and Siena, and only Chianti from this sub-region can carry the black rooster seal on its bottle.

Black Rooster sculpture in Gaiole, Italy

I remember early on in my studies I thought 'why a rooster?'. About 800 years ago there was a territorial feud going on between Florence and Siena over who would rule more land in the Chianti hills. In order to settle this, at the crack of dawn each town would have a horseman ride into the region toward each other and where ever the two met would be the boundary line. Therefore whoever made it the furthest into the region conquered more land.

Where does the rooster come in? Well they didn't have alarm clocks back then, so to make sure each rider was up right at dawn, each town picked a rooster to wake them. Siena picked a white rooster who was well fed, strong, and would be determined to crow, while Florence picked a black rooster who was deprived of food thinking that a hungry rooster would be up earlier to look for food. Can we take a guess at who crowed first in the morning? The black rooster prevailed, Florence claimed a larger stake in the Chianti area, and in 1384 a black rooster became a symbol for Chianti! While this story falls under the 'legend has it' category, it's still pretty amazing :)

chianti classico.jpg
Source: popandpour.ca

I spent 3 days in Florence and drove all over the Chianti countryside with my husband and sister. This is the land of old castles, Tuscan Villas, and some pretty aggressive drivers (just a heads up!) and we got a chance to visit some pretty incredible and historic wineries. See below <3

Me and the husband with the hills of Chianti in the background