Fiasco di vino rosso da tavola Monteriggioni

A ''fiasco'' (, ; : ) is a traditional Italian style of

bottle A bottle is a narrow-necked container made of an impermeable material (such as glass, plastic or aluminium) in various shapes and sizes that stores and transports liquids. Its mouth, at the bottling line, can be sealed with an internal ...

, usually with a round body and bottom, partially or completely covered with a close-fitting

straw Straw is an agricultural byproduct consisting of the dry wikt:stalk, stalks of cereal plants after the grain and chaff have been removed. It makes up about half of the crop yield, yield by weight of cereal crops such as barley, oats, rice, ry ...

basket A basket is a container that is traditionally constructed from stiff Fiber, fibers, and can be made from a range of materials, including wood splints, Stolon, runners, and cane. While most baskets are made from plant materials, other materials ...

. The basket is typically made of '' sala'', a

swamp A swamp is a forested wetland.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p. Swamps are considered to be transition zones because both land and water play a role in ...

weed A weed is a plant considered undesirable in a particular situation, growing where it conflicts with human preferences, needs, or goals.Harlan, J. R., & deWet, J. M. (1965). Some thoughts about weeds. ''Economic botany'', ''19''(1), 16-24. Pla ...

, sun-dried and blanched with

sulfur Sulfur ( American spelling and the preferred IUPAC name) or sulphur ( Commonwealth spelling) is a chemical element; it has symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundant, multivalent and nonmetallic. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms ...

. The basket provides protection during transportation and handling, and also a flat base for the container. Thus the glass bottle can have a round bottom, which is much simpler to make by

glassblowing Glassblowing is a glassforming technique that involves inflating molten glass into a bubble (or parison) with the aid of a blowpipe (or blow tube). A person who blows glass is called a ''glassblower'', ''glassmith'', or ''gaffer''. A '' lampworke ...

. ''Fiaschi'' can be efficiently packed for transport, with the necks of inverted bottles safely tucked into the spaces between the baskets of upright ones.

History

The ''fiasco'' is a Tuscan invention.

Boccaccio Giovanni Boccaccio ( , ; ; 16 June 1313 – 21 December 1375) was an Italian writer, poet, correspondent of Petrarch, and an important Renaissance humanist. Born in the town of Certaldo, he became so well known as a writer that he was s ...

mentions the ''fiasco'' in the ''

Decameron ''The Decameron'' (; or ''Decamerone'' ), subtitled ''Prince Galehaut'' (Old ) and sometimes nicknamed ''l'Umana commedia'' ("the Human comedy", as it was Boccaccio that dubbed Dante Alighieri's ''Comedy'' "''Divine''"), is a collection of ...

'' (around 1350), as a receptacle for red wine and administrative documents of the time mention the profession of ''fiascaio'' ('fiasco-maker'). Common ''fiasco'' sizes of the time were the ''quarto'' ('quarter', 5.7 liters), ''mezzo quarto'' ('half quarter', 2.28 liters), and ''metadella'' ('small half', 1.4 liters). It is not known, however, when the straw covering was introduced. A 14th century painting by Tommaso da Modena shows a small rounded ''fiasco'', completely wrapped with cords of some type. Other artistic depictions were provided by

Botticelli Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi ( – May 17, 1510), better known as Sandro Botticelli ( ; ) or simply known as Botticelli, was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. Botticelli's posthumous reputation suffered until the late 1 ...

(') and

Ghirlandaio Ghirlandaio is the surname of a family of Renaissance Italian painters: * Domenico Ghirlandaio (1449–1494), painter of fresco cycles and Michelangelo's teacher * Davide Ghirlandaio (1452–1525), younger brother of Domenico * Benedetto Ghirlan ...

('' Buonomini di San Martino'' and '' The Birth of John the Baptist''). The earliest fragments of ''sala''-covered bottles date from the 15th century. Throughout its history, the ''fiasco'' was found on the tables of

peasant A peasant is a pre-industrial agricultural laborer or a farmer with limited land-ownership, especially one living in the Middle Ages under feudalism and paying rent, tax, fees, or services to a landlord. In Europe, three classes of peasan ...

s and

pope The pope is the bishop of Rome and the Head of the Church#Catholic Church, visible head of the worldwide Catholic Church. He is also known as the supreme pontiff, Roman pontiff, or sovereign pontiff. From the 8th century until 1870, the po ...

s alike. A decree from 1574 by the Grand Duke of Tuscany fixed the capacity of the ''mezzo quarto'' bottle, and established a public office that would certify the capacity of ''fiaschi'' by a

lead Lead () is a chemical element; it has Chemical symbol, symbol Pb (from Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a Heavy metal (elements), heavy metal that is density, denser than most common materials. Lead is Mohs scale, soft and Ductility, malleabl ...

seal Seal may refer to any of the following: Common uses * Pinniped, a diverse group of semi-aquatic marine mammals, many of which are commonly called seals, particularly: ** Earless seal, also called "true seal" ** Fur seal ** Eared seal * Seal ( ...

applied to the straw covering. However, producers soon started re-using the baskets from discarded certified ''fiaschi'' to dress new sub-standard bottles. To avoid this common fraud, another decree from 1618 specified that the seal was to be applied to the glass bottle itself. In 1621, yet another decree mandated sealing the bottle's mouth with molten lead. For this reason, the straw cover had to be reduced, leaving the bottle bare from the "shoulder" up—an arrangement that persists to this day. By the early 20th century, the manufacture of ''fiaschi'' employed about 1,000 glass blowers and 30,000 basket weavers. A manufacturer's association (''Comissionaria Industria Fiaschi'') was established at

Empoli Empoli () is a town and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Florence, Tuscany, Italy, about southwest of Florence, to the south of the Arno River, Arno in a plain formed by the river. The plain has been usable for agriculture since Ancient Ro ...

in 1933. Starting in the 1950s the manufacture of bottles and baskets was increasingly automated. At the same time, the

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( ; ; Gascon language, Gascon ; ) is a city on the river Garonne in the Gironde Departments of France, department, southwestern France. A port city, it is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the Prefectures in F ...

-style bottle (''bordolese'') was becoming more popular among wine producers, displacing the ''fiasco''. However, a 1965 law reserved the ''fiasco'' for wines of legally controlled denomination (''

denominazione di origine controllata The following four classification of wine, classifications of wine constitute the Italy, Italian system of labelling and legally protecting Italian wine: * ''Denominazione di origine'' (DO, rarely used; ; 'designation of origin'); * ''Indicazione ...

''; DOC), restoring the prestige of that classical container. The ''fiasco'' is no longer commonly used in Italy for storing and selling wine, and its more common uses nowadays are as a souvenir for tourists or as a decorative item in restaurants and kitchens.

Basket features

The straw bands can be vertical or horizontal; the former was traditionally used for ''fiaschi'' destined to local markets, while the latter, with a reinforced base and more careful weaving, was chiefly used for export. The latter often used a basket of whitened straw, decorated with two stripes tinted in the Italian flag colors (red and green). The base is a torus made of scrap straw, tied with fine straw blades (''salicchio''). Centuries ago, the basket often included one or more handles of twisted straw; they are sometimes included in present-day ''fiaschi'', often for decorative purposes only.

Gallery

File:Vin Chianti.jpg, ''Fiaschi'' of

Chianti Chianti is an Italian red wine produced in the Chianti (region), Chianti region of central Tuscan wine, Tuscany, principally from the Sangiovese grape. It was historically associated with a squat bottle enclosed in a straw basket, called a ''fia ...

File:Italian red wine VALPOLICELLA 1974.jpg,

Valpolicella Valpolicella (, , ) is a viticultural zone of the province of Verona, Italy (wine), Italy, east of Lake Garda. The hilly agricultural and marble-quarrying region of small holdings north of the Adige is famous for wine production. Valpolicella ra ...

File:HD.5A.036 (10555475386).jpg, The Chianti ''fiasco'' used to celebrate the first self-sustaining, controlled nuclear chain reaction at the

Chicago Pile-1 Chicago Pile-1 (CP-1) was the first artificial nuclear reactor. On 2 December 1942, the first human-made self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction was initiated in CP-1 during an experiment led by Enrico Fermi. The secret development of the react ...

in 1942

References

External links

History of the Fiasco
at the

city site {{in lang, it Glass bottles Wine packaging and storage