Hello. I’m hoping someone here will be able to help me with our situation trying to see if there’s any remaining value in the wine we have in our Italian cellar.
My wife and I make our home on the Central Coast of CA but we also have a small house located in a quaint medieval village located in the heart of the Chianti wine region of Tuscany, Italy. When we bought our place in Chianti (the village is called Montefioralle, next to Greve in Chianti), we inherited an entire cellar full of old Chianti wine, ranging from about 1968-1979. In total, there are about 740 bottles.
The issue is I’m not sure what to do with all of it as it’s taking up a great deal of room in our little cellar. The way the wine has been kept, I’m not certain how much of it is still good. The cellar is located underground with one small window but has no other temperature control so I’m not sure if the heat may have altered the wine in a negative fashion. Aside from that, I’ve been told that Chianti made back in those days was not meant to age more than 15 years max, and as the bottles have now been sitting there for 50+ years in most cases, I would imagine most of it is not good.
Several years ago we did open about three bottles and one wasn’t bad. I wouldn’t say it was great either but it tasted fine. The other two seem to have been exposed to air so they weren’t so good.
Of course I don’t want to just throw it all out and would like to try to make some money off of them, but I’m not sure how much to charge nor do I know who would be interested. I thought maybe a collector of old wine bottles would like to have some of these in their collection but can’t imagine an investor taking a chance on these.
If you’re interested in seeing what’s in our cellar, below is a link to some pictures of individual bottles, a video that pans around the cellar as well as a spreadsheet listing all of the brands represented in the cellar including the year of the production and how many bottles of each we have. Would greatly appreciate it if someone knowledgeable in Chianti Classico could please take a a look and let me know your thoughts. Thanks in advance.
your only hope is to find someone locally as the logistical costs of moving these far outweighs the value of the wines. statistically, there may be a few that are drinkable, but even in perfect storage none would be good enough today to warrant any real work.
unfortunately it’s a total loss and you’ll likely have to spend some money just for disposal.
Another issue here is that the Chianti of that era was nothing like the wines of today.
Until 1984, the Chianti rules required a minimum of 10% white grapes (malvasia bianca lunga or trebbiano), and could be as much as 30% white. The requirement of some white was only eliminated in 1996.
Also, the variants of sangiovese that were widely planted before 2000 or so were different and inferior to those generally used today. The producers’ consortium began an intense research program in the 90s that resulted in the selection of better clones and widespread replanting/grafting.
From 1984, up to 10% non-indigenous grapes (e.g., cabernet, merlot) could be included.
Bottom line: Some of those bottles may be lovely, but they were generally not built for aging.
If it were my cellar, I’d just keep popping bottles, sharing them when possible with others who are curious about very old wines, treasuring the ones that give pleasure, and dumping the rest.
I’d love to try those Verrazzanos. Congrats on the place in Montefioralle. I’ve actually been there and thought it was lovely (we stayed in Greve). Planning to rent it out?
If it were me, I will keep a selection of 2-3 doz of the wines the darkest colour (shine a torch thru the bottle to see) and the highest levels.
The rest need to go
I was wondering whether you could go around your village and tell everyone in the village about the wines, that the wines are old and probably no good but they are welcome to come and take as many bottles as they want. Who knows
Perhaps you can donate them to a cooking school. I gather there a few in Tuscany. You won’t get a deduction, but they can triage, and it will be good cause
There does seem to be a market for ‘birth year’ wines in Italy, but without as much interest in drinking really old wines as there is in (say) the UK. There are online auctions and these might be an option for that, bundled into suitable lots, plus also some old bottle specialists.
Chianti can age well, but yes back then there would have been plenty of wines not well suited to long ageing.
Thank you to everyone who took the time to comment regarding the Chianti Classico in our cellar. Sounds like my best option is to list them locally on Subito.it and Facebook Marketplace to see if anyone has any interest in them whatsoever. Will update here if something magical happens
What a gem Montefioralle is. You have a spectacular winery there by the same name. I would first contact the producers. They generally did not save much wine in the past, it was a consumable after all and had very little upside in the market until recently. Much of what you’ve posted pictures of is not particularly ageworthy, and as has been mentioned the fills are not promising. They might still be interested in the wines for aesthetic interest if nothing else.
As already mentioned I would contact the producers (if there are any left) and/or their grandchildren. While these wines may have little in monetary value, they have huge value in being familial time capsules. They are beautiful. Good luck!
Thanks so much for the great advice Howard. I emailed them earlier today and they are interested in seeing what we have in person as last year they had made a large cellar purchase and it turned out 3/4 of the bottles were still good. Edoardo will be coming tomorrow afternoon to evaluate, so fingers crossed he’s interested in acquiring some of our wine. Appreciate the great advice.
I think ebay.it also has a decent amount of wine listed (though not something I’ve ever actively checked - merely seeing listings come up from time to time on wine-searcher / other searches).
I did also pop into the shop front of a wine trading company in Torino, where they seemed 90% focused on internet trade, to the point I wondered if it was worth them having a shop with little stock in it). I can’t recall the exact location, but south of Stazione Porta Nuova and east of Crocetta district, but walkable from both. Likewise shops that also stock older vintages an option, like the ones mentioned recently in (IIRC) Andrew K’s thread about his visit to Italy.
