Beautiful ruby red color and an intense and captivating aroma defined by fruity notes of black cherry and blackcurrant with hints of coffee and cocoa. The pleasant aroma is completed by spices and boxwood. Rich with velvety tannins, which are nicely supported by excellent freshness and juiciness.
Villa Antinori was first created in 1928 by Marchese Niccolò Antinori, Piero Antinori’s father, as the signature wine of the Antinori family. An exceptional wine which should represent the family’s history, identity and continuity like no other. And it does. A true, classic Tuscan red wine where grapes are grown, ripened and harvested from Antinori’s Tuscan vineyards and then fermented and aged in the family estates.
Mild winter weather and limited rainfall marked the start of the 2020 growing season, followed by a cool spring season. These climatic conditions encouraged normal bud break and flowering in the vineyards, which occurred in late May.
June offered rain and somewhat moderate temperatures. The summer months were relatively dry and the climate remained cool. Only in August did occasional periods of heat affect the area. Rain showers at the end of August guaranteed an optimal ripening phase with ideal temperature swings between day and night. The grape harvest began the second week of September with Merlot, continued with Syrah and Petit Verdot, and ended in mid-October with Sangiovese and Cabernet.
Italian Marchesi Antinori is 26 generations of absolutely world-class wine history. 630 years is almost hard to understand when it comes to one and the same family of wine producers. But Antinori can trace its history all the way back to 1385, when Giovanni di Piero Antinori was admitted to the ‘Arte Fiorentina dei Vinattieri’, the order of winemakers in Florence. Today, Marchesi Antinori is a member of Primum Familiae Vini – an association of 12 of the most prestigious family-owned wineries in the world. It doesn’t get much bigger than this.
Already in Renaissance Florence, the Marchesi Antinori was a very successful wine house, and Allesandro Antinori was one of the richest residents of the city, which was the center of the time’s great thinkers and artists such as Leonardo da Vinci and for writers such as Dante Alighieri, who wrote his Divine Comedy. Marchesi Antinori is to this day a family-owned company, where values such as enormous care, focus on even tiny details and the desire to constantly become more skilled lie beneath the skin. Through 26 generations, the family has shaped Italian winemaking with innovative and sometimes bold decisions, but always with a fundamental respect for tradition. In 1974 Marchesi Antinori launched his first Tignanello on the market, one of the first so-called “Super Tuscans”. The wine shook up the Italian wine world and changed what could be done in the boot country. Created on a blend of Sangiovese and the then ‘forbidden’, foreign grape varieties Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc, Piero Antinori was one of the great innovators in a brand new wave of super-Tuscans, which one dared to create without discriminating against old rules and standards. Today, Tignanello is considered to be one of the most important wines in the entire wine history of Italy.
Antinori thus already has many more chapters in its history than the vast majority of wineries. But the last chapter is still far from being written. You will be assured of this when you drive up in front of the distinguished winery. Here, everything is done tastefully, from the works of Leonardo da Vinci and Giovanni Della Robbia on display to the lighting in front of the elevator, which leads up to the small restaurant overlooking the vineyards. Although the old roots play a big role in the family’s daily work and in the visions for the house and each individual wine, it has never put an end to Antinori’s always innovative spirit, as the example of Tignanello shows. They research new local and international grape varieties and experiment with alternative cultivation methods, fields at varying heights, fermentation methods, different casks for barrel aging, etc. Today, Albiera Antinori is the director of Marchesi Antinori with the support of the sisters Allegra and Alessia. Their father, Marchese Piero Antinori, is Honorary President of the family business.
93 POINTS
Wine Spectator
“THIS RED SHINES”
This red shines for its elegance and purity of fruit, offering cherry, strawberry, rose and a flash of earth matched to a firm, well-integrated structure. Charming and approachable now, yet has a firm base of tannins too. Shows terrific length. Drink now through 2042.
92 POINTS
James Suckling
A round and fresh Chianti Classico with cherry, berry and orange peel character. Medium body. Hint of vanilla. Open grained tannins.
92 POINTS
Vinous
“PLUMP, JUICY AND SUPER-EXPRESSIVE”
The 2020 Chianti Classico Riserva Villa Antinori is plump, juicy and super-expressive. Dark cherry, plum, mocha, licorice, spice and leather are all dialed up. This lush, forward Riserva is full of near and medium term appeal. Pretty floral notes lift the finish. The Villa Antinori is a blend of fruit from the Antinori family’s holdings in the San Sano, Capraia, Cigliano and Tignanello properties.
91 POINT
Wine Enthusiast
Vanilla, coconut and herbs followed by pencil shavings and ground pepper and finally strawberries and cherries arrive in that order on the nose, with the palate mirroring and revealing the same components in reverse order, against taut tannins.
