Marvin R. Shanken interviewed Piero Antinori, Italy is back on the cover of “Wine Spectator”

Marvin R. Shanken, editor & publisher of the renowned US magazine,“ Wine Spectator”, introduced Marchese Piero Antinori, a “legend” of Tuscan wine, and honorary president of the historic Italian wine family Marchesi Antinori, as the“ Tuscan aristocrat”, twenty-fifth generation of the Antinori “dynasty”, one of the greatest “visionaries” of Italian wine, in half a century that has turned an activity linked to the wine trade in Florence - since 1385 when the family was part of Arte Fiorentina dei Vinattieri, ed. - into a company boasting more than 2.800 hectares of vineyards all over the world. The exclusive talk between two of the most influential figures who have made the history of world wine, in criticism and production, talked to each other and retraced 50 years of history while drinking a glass of wine (documented in this long video).
The “ tête-à-tête” once again has put Italian wine on the cover of “Wine Spectator” (almost 4 million readers worldwide), in the April issue, which, as is now tradition, will be distributed around the world during Vinitaly 2025, in Verona (April 6-9). In this issue, Shanken interviewed “legends” of world wine for the fourth time, such as Chuck Wagner, co-founder of the Californian Caymus Vineyards (2023), Christian Moueix, owner of Pétrus in Bordeaux (2024), and Angelo Gaja, “champion of Italian wine”, of Barolo and Barbaresco, at the helm of the Gaja brand, with his equally visionary thinking, “Piedmont and beyond” (2024). He also boasts the absolute record as the first Italian producer to be on the magazine's cover (way back in 1985, then in 2011 and in April 2024), and now he has three covers like Piero Antinori (in 1994 and, with his daughters Albiera, Allegra and Alessia, in 2015). Over the years, the “front page” has also featured Oscar Farinetti (in 2013), Lodovico Antinori (in 2016), Marilisa Allegrini (in 2017) and Nicolò and Priscilla Incisa della Rocchetta (Sassicaia, Tenuta San Guido) in 2018.
Vinitaly, the top event for Italian wine, is the occasion when, as per tradition, “Wine Spectator” organizes “Opera Wine”, the great tasting with 131 Italian wineries, for Veronafiere, as the prologue (April 5th). Above all, though, it celebrates Italian wine, the Americans’ “wine dream” par excellence, since the USA is the number one export market, confirming a passion that the complicated global geopolitical scenarios might slow down, but certainly will not stop. And, of course wine critics are involved as well. On the latest “Top 100” 2024 of “Wine Spectator”, at position number 3, Tignanello 2021 by Marchesi Antinori is one of the best wines in the world, along with 20 other Italian wines on the ranking, 14 of which come from Tuscany.
Piero Antinori also talked about dreams, “Wine Spectator” noted. Antinori said he thinks back about the last half century of history at the helm of the family business, to the creation of Tignanello 50 years ago - in 1974 and the first vintage on the market, 1971 - launching an iconic Italian wine in the world, the first of the “Super Tuscans”, and one of the driving forces of the “Renaissance” of Italian wine. Then, Solaia 1997, the first Italian wine at number 1 in the history of the “Top 100” in 2000, to the creation of the Cantina Antinori nel Chianti Classico in 2012 (“World’s Best Vineyards”, the most beautiful winery in the world, in 2022), to the family, his brother Lodovico Antinori and his daughters Albiera, Alessia and Allegra Antinori who succeeded him at the helm of the company, the CEO Renzo Cotarella, to purchasing, in 2023, Stag’s Leap Wine Cellar, one of the “gems” in Napa Valley, where Antinori is the only Italian producer, and then to his plans for the future, he confessed,“ sometimes I wake up and think: is this all true or is it a dream?”.