By Anna & Maria Sciacca
The beautiful straw bottle of wine, called in Italian “fiasco” or “fiaschetto,” from Latin flasca, symbolizes the traditional and authentic cuisine and Italian culture of conviviality, especially in Tuscany. In ancient times, wine was usually not consumed straight; during banquets, the amphora was opened in the dining room, and the wine was poured into another terracotta or bronze container and mixed with water. The wine was then drawn from this container and served to the guests’ cups.
The history of fiasco began with glassmaking around the 14th century in Tuscany. Other Italian regions such as Umbria, Marche, Lazio, Emilia Romagna, Veneto, Calabria, and Sicily used similar bottles to store wine and oil. The artisanal work of glassmakers and bottlemakers, called “fiascai,” particularly developed in the areas of Val d’Elsa and Val d’Arno.
The glassmasters created green glass bottles using the blowing technique, which had a round shape inspired by the water bottles called “Borracce” used by travelers. The glass bottles for the wine were covered with “stiancia” (Typha Latifolia) and raft “salicchio”, which are swamp weeds found in ponds and marshlands. The hard work of coating the bubble bottles with the straw was performed by women called “fiascaie”. They traveled from the countryside to the glassware factories in a cart to collect the glass bottles at the glassmasters’ workshops. Then, they wove the straw by hand, wrapping it around the bottles. It’s a piece work, called “cottimo” in Italian, paid depending on how many bottles they could produce daily.
The first fiascos were large, containing two liters of wine, while larger bottles contained four or more liters of wine, and they were known as demijohns, “damigiane” coated with wicker or straw from top to bottom. In the cellars, the wine was usually conserved in “damigiane”, wooden barrels, pottery, amphorae, and then served at the tables of taverns in carafes, pottery, and terracotta jugs, which were used as mugs.
In 1574, the measure of wine was established at 2,280 litres, and in 1629, a brand was marked on the glass of the fiasco to guarantee the authenticity of Tuscan wine. During the 16th century, the wicker bottle was also employed in apothecaries. These bottles are made of lighter green glass with the straw woven in overlapping lozenges in horizontal rows.
The straw-covered wine bottles, called “fiasco,” were sealed with a tuft of straw. It was common to seal wine in flasks and demijohns with olive oil on top and a wicker or paper cap. However, in the 17th century, cork stoppers replaced those made of wood and tow. The wine was stored in barrels. The straw bands covering the bottles provided protection during shipping and helped preserve the wine better from sunlight and other atmospheric agents. Bottles began to be partially wrapped with straw.
Starting from the 18th century, the horizontal straw that covered the bottles was replaced by a vertical one, partially covering the bottles, with a straw donut placed at the base of the “fiasco.” Trebbiano, Vermiglio, and Florence red wine were popular, but the distinctive straw-covered flask made Chianti a famous wine, primarily crafted with Sangiovese grapes. The name Chianti comes from the hilly Tuscan region between Florence and Siena.
In the Chianti region, the framing of the straw was vertical in the area of Florence and horizontal in that of Siena. The fiasco became so popular that it was mentioned in 1887 in the Novo Vocabolario of the Crusca Academy of the Italian language in Florence. In Tuscany, the flask is also known as Toscanello.
Around the beginning of the 20th century, with the influx of Italian immigration to America, bottles of Chianti wine were in high demand in Italian households, at the tables of taverns and restaurants serving Italian cuisine, and on the shelves of grocery stores in Little Italy, New York.
For Italians, having a fiasco—the traditional straw-covered bottle of Chianti wine on the table—was like bringing a cherished taste of Italy with them. Vineyards like Melini, Ricasoli, Frescobaldi, Antinori, Bertolli, Cecchi, and Chianti Ruffino started exporting Chianti bottles to America. Chianti wine became famous worldwide, and it wasn’t the owners of the wine companies who promoted it, but rather the importers who traveled to Tuscany to buy the bottles wine. The international exhibitions between the 19th and 20th centuries provided great opportunities for Italian wine producers. Chianti straw fiaschi were exported with two stripes, red and green, representing the Italian flag colors on the whitened straw.
Nowadays, the typical Chianti fiasco wrapped in the straw is not easy to find in stores. Around 19th century the Bordeaux-style bottle (Bordolese) started to become popular among wine producers, and with the industrialization the fiasco bottles were often made with bases of synthetic straw or plastic, therefore some wine producers with the Consorzio del Fiasco Toscano tried to reevaluate the quality of Chianti wine and give the authenticity of the traditional fiasco with the natural straw.
The Chianti fiasco is a symbol of Italy, especially of the Tuscany region. It has also become a decorative item often placed on the red and white checked tablecloths of Italian trattorias, where you can see pictures of the Colosseum in Rome, Mount Vesuvius in Naples, the sea views of Amalfi, Sorrento, and the beautiful Tuscan countryside on the walls. Italian and American movies often feature romantic scenes with a fiaschetto of wine at a trattoria table or in everyday life scenes.
Until 1940 it was usual to see along the streets in the cities of Florence and Rome “I barrocci” or “Carrettieri del vino”, the carts of wine who brought the straw flasks of wine overloaded on their carts, trained by horses to cellars and taverns. Over the years, the fiasco has varied in size, form, and patterns; bottles come in sizes ranging from 1.5 liters to 1 liter, as well as half-liter and smaller sizes. In 1975, Ruffino created the Florentine bottle, inspired by the shape of a historic fiasco. Another new edition of the Ruffino fiasco was introduced in 2012, and a new model of bottle, called Dame-Janine, was created in 2014.
In Florence, the ancient history of the traditional straw fiasco is also told along some streets. Between Via Calzaioli and Via Condotta, there is an indication, “Canto dei Fiascai” (Song of the Fiascai,) because many artisans had their workshops and warehouses for fiaschi. Florence is also popular for the tiny doors, which are the Florentine, wine windows called “Buchette del vino” built into the walls of ancient palaces. The wine windows are small openings constructed in the 16th century when people also used to buy wine at these lovely, small windows facing the streets. Actually, the “Buchette del vino” have returned to popularity, especially for tourism. These small windows were once used only for the sale of retail wine, while today they are used to serve wines, cocktails, and ice cream.
In the regions of Italy, there are other bottles covered with straw, such as the Pulcianella bottle from Orvieto in Umbria, the Valpolicella bottle from the Veneto region, the white wine Frascati, and the red wine Castelli Romani. Castelli Romani is a characteristic wine of the fraschette of Lazio. These were built as cool cellars with wooden barrels, tables, and chairs where people could eat and enjoy a glass of wine.
The Museum of Fiasco in Montelupo Fiorentino with a monument dedicated to the fiasco-dresser “fiascaia” tells the story of the art of glassmaking by master glassmakers and the artisanal work of covering bottles with straw done by the flask-dressers: “A typically Tuscan tradition that unites the art of glassmaking with the culture of the land, of wine”. The art of glass dates back to the thirteenth century, the glass masters were called “bicchierai” for the production of glasses and flasks. To visit this museum, nestled between its thick and cool walls with terracotta floors, is a journey through time into the work and traditions of an ancient and authentic Italy.
MEETING WITH RICCARDO BARTOLOZZI AT THE MUSEUM OF FIASCO OF MONTELUPO FIORENTINO
In the ancient fourteenth-century tower of Montelupo Fiorentino overlooking the Arno River, Riccardo Bartolozzi, son of Giovanni Bartolozzi, President of Vetreria Etrusca, has founded the Museum of Fiasco. He collects rare straw flasks and illustrates their history through photos, tools, paintings, and a valuable collection of various bottle models and straw-covered flasks of Chianti wine made in different eras, including a silver straw flask.
At the museum entrance, there’s a characteristic cart with flasks. Riccardo showcases in the window displays the Pulcianella bottles from Orvieto, Umbria, straw-covered bottles from the Verona area, and a straw fiasco purchased at the New York flea market.
The story of the fiasco began in the fourteenth century in Tuscany. The flask is mentioned in Boccaccio’s Decameron and is later found in some paintings by artists such as Botticelli and Ghirlandaio,” says Riccardo Bartolozzi. “Today, the flask is made mechanically. The work of the flask-dressers is no longer there. Women did this work after lunch or after dinner; it was a job that supplemented their husband’s salary. The transport system was the cart. From the countryside, the women stocked up on flasks from glassworks.
Continuing through the museum’s rooms, Riccardo Bartolozzi shows us interesting straw weaving patterns on flasks completely wrapped in straw from the 1400s, and flasks that are partially lined with straw from the 1700s to the mid-twentieth century. Riccardo explains, “Since cameras didn’t exist, we refer to paintings. If you find a painting by a certain artist, you see the type of style prevalent during that period, such as the Tuscany fiasco of the 1400s, then the 1500s, 1600s, 1700s, 1800s, and up to the mid-twentieth century. A collector distinguishes a flask by the type of straw wrapping”.
After visiting the museum, they showed us a work of art, “La Madonna dei Vetrai,” made by Vetreria Etrusca and Vetreria Lux. The tower-shaped work presents Madonna with Child and a straw flask. Created by the master Lelio Rossi with the silkscreen technique, some scenes describe the work of the glassmakers and the women flask-dressers. In the evening, the glass tower lights up with the light of the lamps and with the Glassmakers’ Festival in its 28th edition from 2 to 6 July at the Circolo La Torre in Montelupo Fiorentino, the art of glassmaking was celebrated, offering cultural events, food and wine, entertainment, and works by master glassmakers.
“FIORENZO AND GIGLIOLA, THE STORY OF A FLASK-DRESSER” BY GIOVANNI BARTOLOZZI
In the rustic beauty of Tuscany’s hilly landscape, Giovanni Bartolozzi tells the story of love between Fiorenzo and Gigliola in genuine, everyday life scenarios. However, the book is also a historical document on the ancient crafts and traditions of Tuscany’s culture, the work of master glassmakers and flask-dressers. Simple and strong women did hard work that was not well paid. In the book, Giovanni Bartolozzi writes: “… they also labored after dinner: in the summertime out of doors, under the public lamppost: in the wintertime at home, near the window when the moon was full in order to save on light”.
The book published by Giunti Group Editore, Florence, in 2003, presents photos of the Bartolozzi Family, photos of fiasco-dressers, some types of fiaschi: bubble canteen, rosé,, pulcianella, fiasco for maraschino, 16th century fiasco, 17th century fiasco, an image of the Fior d’Italia restaurant from the 1920s.
The book also has great value for these beautiful words written by Giovanni Bartolozzi: “In life, desire no more than what you can permit yourself. Seek gratification in the things you do, not in the profit you can reap from them… The greatest wealth lies in what you enjoy. If you have that chance, have the strength to be content with it, and you will lead a happy life”.
