🍷 Riserva Ducale

Riserva Ducale is a line of Ruffino (red DOCG Chianti Classico Riserva wine); years on this site: 2022.

According to the house, it has been made since 1927; the name honours the Duke of Aosta, who chose Ruffino as supplier to the royal household in 1890; the grapes come from estate vineyards and from long-standing Chianti Classico growers.

Ruffino is a Tuscan wine company founded in 1877 by cousins Ilario and Leopoldo Ruffino in Pontassieve near Florence; known for Riserva Ducale Chianti Classico, with estates across Tuscany.

Chianti Classico is a controlled and guaranteed designation of origin (DOCG; in EU terms a PDO) from the centre of Tuscany, in the provinces of Florence and Siena; its boundaries were set by the Interministerial Decree of 31 July 1932. The main variety is Sangiovese. The area is hill country at 200–600 m with galestro shale, scaly clay, calcareous sandstone and alberese; the climate is continental, with about 850 mm of rain a year. According to the description of the link with the area, the name Chianti for the local wine first appears in a notarial deed of 1398; in 1716 a proclamation by Cosimo III, Grand Duke of Tuscany, first defined the boundaries of a wine area; producers founded a consortium in 1924, the oldest zone gained the right to the word «Classico» in 1932, and in 1996 Chianti Classico received its own rules, separate from Chianti.

The term Riserva means a wine with higher minimums than the basic Chianti Classico: a total alcoholic strength of at least 12.5 % instead of 12 %, and at least 25 g/l of sugar-free extract instead of 24 g/l.

Under the DOCG Chianti Classico rules, the yield is limited to 7,500 kg of grapes and 52.5 hl of wine per hectare; the total alcoholic strength is at least 12 % (Riserva 12.5 %, Gran Selezione 13 %), and a vintage wine may not be released before 1 October of the year after the harvest. The wine must be bottled within the area (apart from certain long-standing exceptions), and since 2005 every bottle must carry the black rooster image. The traditional training systems are the Guyot «Tuscan arch» and spurred cordon. The designation is a rule of origin and production, not a verdict on taste.

Under EU rules, a wine label must show the designation of origin, the actual alcoholic strength, allergens such as sulphites, and the name of the bottler. A harvest year on the label means the wine is made from grapes of that year.

Why it matters to you. The name on the label tells you where the grapes come from and under which rules the wine was made; in Chianti Classico the harvest dates and ageing change every year, so different years of the same wine are different wines. The WHO reminds: there is no safe level of alcohol. The year on the label is the harvest year.