Poor Chianti. It has been a punch line since well before Hannibal Lecter. The straw-covered fiaschi of the 1960s, receptacles for many a candle, became symbols of shame as Italian wine sought ...

Chianti used to be expected, ... 3 great bottles of Chianti. By Patrick Comiskey . ... But in the last decade a great many producers — including the traditional houses such as Badia a Coltibuono ...

THE CLASS OF CHIANTI / Chianti Classico wine has come a long way from the dull stuff in the straw-covered bottle. ... charged more money than they could ever expect to get from traditional Chianti.

Here are three worth drinking.

If your only introduction to Chianti is that shelf full of basket-covered bottles called fiascos you find in red and white checkered tablecloth trattorias, it's time to take a little armchair ...

It seemed to me, judging by the 20 bottles we tasted, that some producers were reaching for a middle ground, ... along with more traditional Chianti blending grapes like canaiolo and colorino. ...

While the traditional Chianti producers were spending the last 50 years preserving their cultural heritage, ... No label laws, and no supervision of what you could put in the bottle.

For decades, the best-known wines of Italy came from the famous appellation of Chianti in the heart of the Tuscan hills. Then, suddenly, there was a resurgence of interest in making great wines ...

Alsatian wines have taller, thinner bottles. The traditional Chianti bottle, wrapped in straw, called the fiasco, is now out of favor by most producers.

While the traditional Chianti producers were spending the last 50 years preserving their cultural heritage, some of them decided to go the other way and buck the rules totally.