“Ten years after Giacomo Tachis” with wines which, after his vision, changed Italy

A key and revolutionary figure in Italian wine production, thanks to a vision capable of interpreting it in a modern key, enhancing both international and indigenous grape varieties, their territories and, above all, the people who shape them. This was, and this is, the legacy of Giacomo Tachis, the greatest Italian enologist and one of the greatest in the world, among the “fathers” of the Italian wine renaissance, celebrated 10 years after his passing during Vinitaly 2026, at Veronafiere in Verona, in a masterclass organized by “Somm is the Future” and Assoenologi. The tasting featured wines from different territories and identities, yet among the most representative born of that enlightened vision. Eight labels envisioned and later created by the great Piedmontese master were presented through the voices of the enologists, who recounted their genesis and production philosophy, linking them to the most emotional memories that bind them to Tachis; of the sommeliers of “Somm is the Future”, a cultural project founded in 2025 to promote global sommellerie and to build bridges among professionals from different backgrounds and associations, and of the producers themselves, for whom these wines are symbols of their relationship with Tachis and offer tangible testimony to the imprint he left in diverse production contexts. The masterclass was led by Paolo Porfidio, founder of the project, together with Paolo Brogioni, director of Assoenologi, who interpreted the sensory profiles of wines. The producers included Umani Ronchi with Pelago, Tenuta San Leonardo with San Leonardo, Donnafugata with Mille e una Notte, Argiolas with Turriga, Tenuta San Guido with Sassicaia, Casale Falchini with Campora, Feudi del Pisciotto with Dedicato a Tachis, and Ilaria Tachis with Giacomo.
Ilaria Tachis, daughter of Giacomo Tachis, was the special guest of this homage, which brought forth an extraordinary number of memories from the thoughts of all the producers and enologists invited to comment on their wines. Moving and deeply moved, she recalled the definition given to her father by WineNews, which described him as “the technical architect of the Italian tricolor wine renaissance” (entrusting our publication with the announcement of his passing to the world, and “to his loved ones and great friends, the founders Alessandro Regoli and Irene Chiari”). “My father was never interested in collecting bottles. In his cellar - she recalled - samples and refined labels were mixed together with bottles of essences and spirits, which he loved to collect”. A “wild disorder” that, by contrast, didn’t exist among his books and writings, all meticulously organized. In his writings, the common thread of wine was culture: the commercial aspect came afterward. Working in Tuscany, “he became intoxicated with Humanism and fascinated by history, by nature - continued Ilaria Tachis - by extraordinary territories and people. Over time he refined his intuitions. He was curious, he studied and explored everything with zeal”.
The masterclass thus became a journey through great wine culture and through the territories that Giacomo Tachis was the first to discover, and to discover things first requires genius, something the celebrated enologist certainly owned. The places Tachis discovered are far from ordinary: they are lands of deep history and tradition, which wine, in his conception, had the task of narrating, regardless of the grape variety used. “My father always said that Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon were capable of capturing the essence of the Bolgheri countryside, that the red wine Turriga told the story of Sardinia strength, and that Sicilian wines were witnesses to its culture”, explained Ilaria Tachis. According to her, her father was a man of territory, not of grape variety, and he worked according to the spiritual affinity he found with the people he collaborated with. “He came from a simple family, grew up in a small town in Piedmont with a provincial mindset. He wanted to be a violinist, then a butcher, but his mother sent him to study oenology in Alba. After finishing his studies he went against the current and moved south: he arrived in Tuscany, a new world, where he first created Sassicaia and later Tignanello. My father was a gentle man with a difficult character. But he was generous, even with those who could not pay him: he was open to everyone, great gentlemen and humble people alike. And this is the greatest lesson he left me”, concluded Ilaria Tachis, opening the tasting and the storytelling of the wines and their producers in the WineNews tastings.