Hello beautiful people, and welcome back to another article about gorgeous home-country: Italy! 🙂
Today we will talk about Florence, one of the “BIG-3” most visited cities in Italy with Rome and Venice, a non-capital city that each year welcomes more than 16million tourists alone!
Every year in fact, millions of travelers from all around the world arrive in Florence with a familiar checklist in mind: the Duomo of the Brunelleschi (stunning beauty!), the Uffizi gallery, the iconic Ponte Vecchio, the operas of Michelangelo, the streets of the Renaissance, the leather shops…
Florence for centuries has been the cultural capital of Europe and even today it remains one of the most artistic and eccentric cities on the planet!
There are truly so many reasons why the capital of Tuscany is so famous world-wide, yet today, we will focus on a very special (and highly renowned!) side of it: it’s secular wine culture!
Wine in Florence is a both a tradition, and a second language!
For centuries in fact, Florence has flourished as a republic of merchants, bankers, artisans, traders, guilds, arts, negotiation and hospitality, and according to many historians, local wine culture seems to have played a key role in “lubricating” social interaction, easing relationships, and sparkling ideas and innovation! 🙂
Today, we will delve deep (very deep! ahah) into 10 curious fun facts about Florence’s wine culture: the grapes qualities, the types of wine, the tasting experience, the traditions and of course, the geographical and historical context that made this city into a wine capital of the world!
On this travel through the Florentine wine heritage, we will be accompanied by the wine conosseurs of Enoteca F.lli Zanobini, one of the most historical wine shops in Florence, founded in 1944 and located close to the Florence Central Market, just few steps from the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore (the heart of the city!).
This Enoteca (Italian word for “specialised wine shop” 🙂 ), has been offering authentic tasting experiences for almost a century, where you can learn about the different types of wine, the right food pairings (about which we will talk soon!) and enjoy a moment of relaxation outside the touristic chaos of the city.
Their knowledge was invaluable to help us writing this post, and we can definitely recommend to pay them a visit if you happen to be slightly thirsty walking around Florence! 😉
Said that, let’s dive right in and let’s start learning! 😀
10 Fun Facts about
Florence Wine Culture 🙂
1. Florence Had Wine Windows Centuries
Before Modern Wine Bars
Modern cities around the world, love to market novelty: from hidden bars in London, to exclusive beach entrances in Bali, to contactless wrist-band service and tablets all around Asia, to street-side drinks and more… the “experiences” designed for curious travelers are countless nowadays!
Florence, on its side, had already solved much of that “need-to-be-special problem” centuries ago!
Throughout the historic center in fact, if you open your eyes wide and know what to search for, you can still spot small stone openings built into noble palaces.
Theose holes are called “buchette del vino” (or “wine windows” in English), and many of those date back to the 16th and 17th centuries.
These tiny windows, were a marketing stratagem that allowed local families (often owners of vineyards in the Tuscan countryside), to sell wine directly from their residences to people in the street 🙂
The system was simple and brilliantly Florentine: surprisingly practical, actually profitable, and architecturally discreet.
Their use was straightforward: customer would approach the wall, knock or call, pay through the opening, and receive wine without entering the building.
Easy: no intermediaries, lower costs, direct-to-consumer sale! 😀
What not many people know though, is that these windows also became especially useful for exchanges and wine sales during times of plague, when limiting physical contact mattered!
During the 2020 Covid pandemic, several of them re-opened symbolically to sell wine while respecting the stringent pandemic restrictions applied in Italy at that time.
Many tourists nowadays walk past these openings without noticing them, photographing grand facades while missing one of the most human details embedded in the stone. But now you know, so you won’t be missing them anymore! 😀
On a side note, some crazy Italian association even created a Map of all the Buchette of Florence, where each hole has its own photo and history recorded: by digging deep into the database, you might also be able to spot one of the few wine windows still operating today! 🙂
2. The Chianti Wine Was Protected
Before Many Countries Had Wine Laws!
Chianti is probably the most famous wine from Tuscany and an omni-present name on menus all over Florence (and in Tuscany at large too!).
The story of Chianti dates back centuries…and did you know that this exact wine also represents one of the earliest examples of wine protection laws in Europe?
This fact alone, I believe it makes it far more interesting than any just a well-known red wine!
As the story goes, in 1716 Cosimo III de’ Medici (the Grand Duche of Tuscany at the time) issued an edict that officially identified and protected several important Tuscan wine-producing areas, including territories historically linked to the Chianti!
Many wine historians consider this one of the first real ancestors of the appellation systems we know today.
Setting geographical boundaries and production standards was the same philosophy that many years later shaped classifications such as DOCG in Italy or AOC in France.
Why was it important to define what a “Chianti” was like? – you might wonder!
That is simply because if a wine becomes respected, copied versions inevitably appear on the market!
If a product is not regulated or protected (like it happens with today’s copyrights), producers outside the area may use the same name, lower standards begin to spread, and customers no longer know what is authentic!
Tuscany understood centuries ago that reputation is fragile, and geography can be part of quality 🙂
Among the parameters that define a Chianti today, are the soil type, the altitude, the sunlight exposure, the amount of rainfall, the grape variety, and of course, the production steps!
The modern “Chianti Classico” for example, occupies only the historic zone between Florence and Siena, one of the most scenic areas of central Italy (rolling vineyards, cypress-lined roads, olive groves, forests, and medieval villages… if you happen to drive through it – and you should if you’ve got an extra day on your hands – you will understand why this place plays such an important role in crafting a good wine! 😉 ).
3. Tuscan White Wines are waaay Better
than Most Tourists Expect! 😉
Ask first-time visitors to name a Tuscan wine, and most will immediately think of red one!
Chianti, Brunello, Super Tuscans and any bold bottle ordered with traditional Florentine steak usually dominate the conversation 🙂
The reputation of red wines is surely deserved.
Said that, what many tourists often don’t pay enough attention to, is that Tuscany can produce excellent white wines too!
Did you know that one of the region’s historic treasures is Vernaccia di San Gimignano?
It was the first Italian wine to receive DOC status in 1966, as a sign of its importance and heritage!
Vernaccia is a type of wine that feels fresh, mineral, elegant, and ideal in the good season after a morning spent walking Florence’s stone streets!
When temperatures rise, I believe it can feel like a far smarter choice than a heavy red (I am a white-wine lover myself xD).
Then there is also the “Vermentino”, a wine from coastal Tuscany, where sea breezes and warmer weather often create wines with bright acidity, citrus notes, and Mediterranean character. (It is the kind of bottle that works beautifully for lunch or aperitivo!).
To cite another one, there is also the “Trebbiano”, an often underestimated one, can surprise when made seriously by quality producers: crispier, balanced, and genuinely enjoyable!
Our tip for you is to choose your wine in Florence depending on the moment of the day and of the year: in warmer times or after excursions, I swear that white wines are wayyy more enjoyable than red ones, while red ones are excellent with “heavier” food and when you don’t have to move too much after.
NOTE: If you’re wondering the best way to pick the right wine among many, we would recommend to visit an historic place such as Enoteca F.lli Zanobini, which can provide guidance and help you to change your experience from simply “drinking wine” to “understanding the wine” 🙂
4. There was a time,
when wine was
safer to drink than Water!
It might sound strange today, but for long stretches of European history, wine could be safer than water.
Yes, really!
That is mainly because in past centuries, clean drinking water was far less reliable than it is now: urban sanitation systems were inconsistent, contamination was common, and stored water could quickly become unsafe.
Wine on the other side, especially lower-alcohol everyday wine, was often considered a more dependable option at the table because its fermentation process, alcohol content, and acidity killed harmful, waterborne bacteria that caused illnesses like cholera and dysentery.
In many households, wine was diluted with water and consumed regularly with meals to make water safer to drink.
That of course does not mean everyone walked around drinking fine Chianti all day! xD
Much of what ordinary people consumed was simple local wine meant for daily life.
Still, it shows how deeply wine was woven into Florentine society: it was not reserved only for celebrations or wealthy elites, but was an everyday beverage for most which jointed calories, ritual and social glue all into one calice! 🙂
5. Every Great Florentine Dish
Has Its Rightful Wine Partner!
6. Tuscany Has One of Europe’s Richest Wine Maps, With 58 Official Wine Denominations!
Many travelers think of Tuscany as “one” wine region with two or three dominant wines (such as the Chianti)…the reality is far more interesting though!
Tuscany is indeed home to -brace yourself!!! – 58 official wine denominations, including 11 DOCG, 41 DOC, and 6 IGT categories, making it one of the most diverse wine regions in Europe!
That is an impressive concentration of protected identity even for Italian standards (just for your information, in Italy every single region produces wine, and the total national production is above 5 BILLION bottles of wine a year!).
Tuscany alone, has more than 60,000 hectares of vineyards, spread across hills, valleys, coastal zones, and mountain foothills; divided into thousands of estates, cooperatives, family farms, and historic producers working across very different landscapes!
Every year, Tuscany produces roughly 2.5 to 2.7 million hectolitres of wine, equal to more than 330 million bottles depending on the vintage 🙂
7. The “Sangiovese” Grape
is the Queen (and secret!) of Tuscan Wines!
If Tuscany had one grape variety that best tells its story, it would surely be Sangiovese!
Sangiovese in fact forms the backbone of many of Tuscany’s most famous wines, including Chianti, Chianti Classico, Brunello di Montalcino (where it appears as Sangiovese Grosso), and the Vino Nobile di Montepulciano.
Just naming those 4 wines, can tell alone how central this grape variety truly is!
What makes Sangiovese so special and fascinating though is its ability to change according to place and so its adaptability!
The same grape (same plant!) can express itself very differently depending on altitude, soil, climate, and winemaking style!
In some areas it becomes bright, elegant, and lifted, with notes of cherry and herbs.
Elsewhere it can feel deeper, more structured, earthy, and built for aging… and that is the same plant!
That means when you drink different Tuscan reds, you are often tasting not only different wines, but different interpretations of the same grape!
EXTRA FUN FACT: Did you know that some of the world’s most respected wine regions are built around one flagship grape?
Think Pinot Noir in Burgundy or Nebbiolo in Piedmont. Tuscany has Sangiovese 🙂
8. Historic Wine Shops
Were Once the “Social Networks” of Florence
If you had walked through Florence two or three centuries ago (but even just 30 years ago!) there was no WhatsApp group, no local Facebook page, and no travel forum telling you what was happening in town!
If you wanted to know something, you usually had to go where people gathered…
Markets did that job. Churches did that job. Squares did that job.
Yet so very often, local wine shops di that job! 🙂
Historic enoteche were practical places where people bought bottles, but where they were also informal information exchanges.
Merchants discussed prices of goods around town, artisans talked about their work, neighbors shared rumors, travelers asked where to stay, and regulars returned partly for the drink and partly for the atmosphere… that was the magical bounding power of wine!
Even today, with all the technological changes going on, wine bars remain cultural hubs for the Florentine culture and locals frequent them a LOT, younger and older generations alike!
9. Not all Chianti is the same,
and many Tourists drink the “wrong” one
A lot of visitors come to Florence excited to drink Chianti, then they choose the first bottle that “looks” traditional and has a rooster on the label, or sits in the “safe middle” of the price list.
While that might feel logical, it can often lead to a mediocre experience: there are just so many “Chianti”, and not because a bottle holds a famous name, is 100% good (as we learned before, Chianti is a name that is given to wines grown in a particular place, but it does not alone ensure the quality of the wine!).
While our brains are made to work with euristich cues (such as the “Chianti” word could be in this case), it is important to go beyond the automatic simplication process: two bottles carrying the Chianti name can taste dramatically different!
Not slightly different. Dramatically different!
One may be fresh, vibrant, balanced, full of cherry fruit, herbs, and energy.
Another may feel tired, generic, overly oaked, thin, or designed mainly to satisfy tourist expectations… The difference usually comes down to producer quality, vineyard location, yield levels, vintage conditions, and winemaking choices: the label alone tells only part of the story!
This is the main reason why locals and serious wine conosseurs rarely choose only by denomination, but instead ask who made it, where it comes from, and what style it represents:)
Yes, that is over-complicated stuff for average drinkers (like us too!), but still very interesting to know: when we’ve been guided, it was a stunning relevation to experience the difference!
If you don’t know yourself what to look for, simply ask locals: wine shops, restaurants, locals drinking wine on the street side… here apparently everyone loves talking about wine, and they will surely be happy to guide you! 🙂
10. A Glass of Wine Can Become
Your Most Valuable Florence Memory –
Enjoy it SLOWLY!
Travel researchers often note that apart of landmarks, travelers often remember experiences through emotion, atmosphere, scent, and contrast more strongly than through factual details and vision.
Ever happened to you to forget the exact order of museum rooms, but remembering the hour when fatigue disappeared, conversation became warmer, or a city suddenly felt personal? 🙂
Living memorable and different sensations is what traveling is truly about and what makes it truly special for our souls (here we wrote an entire article about 25 reasons why traveling is important) 🙂
Wine, by letting the mind unwind and relax, can definitely deliver one of those moments!
As Galileo Galilei once said, “Wine is sunlight, held together by water.” , and to enjoy such a precious gift, tranquillity and calm are in our opinion essential!
Tasting wine in Florence, is an experience to enjoyu slowly. If I can give you a tip: don’t cram it in a tight schedule or a tight checklist!
Being it before lunch accompanied by the church bells, or later in the day as the Arno river darkens into evening, remember to live the moment, the stillness, the now! A good bottle of Florentine Wine can be much more than a drink, but a memory that if shared with the right person, can last for a lifetime 🙂
Conclusions 🙂
And here we are at the end of our article!
Today we explored the “wine-side” of Florence that is often overlooked by many!
Together, we’ve seen fun facts, curiosities and tips to help you navigate the city of Dante Alighieri with more knowledge and new eyes!
Before going, I would now like to ask you:
- Was the article useful to you?
- Have you ever visited Florence?
- What was your most memorable food or wine moment there?
- Which of these 10 facts surprised you the most?
Let us know in the comments below! 😀
Hereafter, I will leave you a few articles that you might also be interested in checking out:
Thank you for reading, and see you in the next article!
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