The
history of Chianti dates back to at least the 13th century with the earliest incarnations of
Chianti as a
white wine. Today this
Tuscan wine is one of
Italy's most well known and recognizable wines. In the
Middle Ages, the villages of
Gaiole,
Castellina and
Radda located near Florence formed as a
Lega del Chianti (League of Chianti) creating an area that would become the spiritual and historical "heart" of the Chianti region and today is located within the
Chianti Classico Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita (DOCG). As the wines of Chianti grew in popularity other villages in Tuscany wanted their lands to be called Chianti. The boundaries of the region have seen many expansions and sub-divisions over the centuries. The variable
terroir of these different
macroclimates contributed to diverging range of quality on the market and by the late 20th century consumer perception of Chianti was often associated with basic mass-market Chianti sold in a squat
bottle enclosed in a straw basket, called
fiasco.