Rumors WineNews: the hill of the legendary Tignanello returns to the Antinori family

Fifty years is an important birthday. An occasion in which there are those who treat themselves to the trip of a lifetime, those who treat themselves to an unforgettable dinner, those who treat themselves to a jewel or perhaps a dream wine. Or, 4 hectares in one of the symbolic places of the “Renaissance” of Italian wine (which will be replanted with Sangiovese vines, starting from the existing material), and from which one of the most prestigious wines of the Italian panorama is born. That is, the hill of Tignanello, where one of the most important estates of Marchesi Antinori is located (with 130 hectares of vineyards and a villa that dates back to the 16th century).
A sort of “ideal terrain” for the production of wine, 450 meters above sea level, with a wide range of temperatures between day and night, where the Antinori family, according to WineNews rumors, in the 50th anniversary of the first vintage of Tignanello, 1971, purchased these 4 hectares (already owned by the family in the past) thus reconstituting, under the aegis of one of the oldest Italian wine producers, the integrity of the hill, recreating, in fact, a true “monopole” of the highest quality in the heart of Chianti Classico (in San Casciano Val di Pesa). From here was born (in addition to the famous Solaia and Marchese Antinori Chianti Classico Riserva), as mentioned and as the name itself tells, Tignanello, one of the most important wines of the Italian panorama.
It is the result of an intuition of Niccolò and Piero Antinori already in the 1960s, who understood the potential of a “single vineyard” wine, immediately praised by the master of Italian wine critics Luigi Veronelli (who wrote of the “76,682 vines of an ancient Chianti vineyard, known as Tignanello”, a phrase found on the 1971 label designed by the great graphic artist Silvio Coppola) and which became a reality also thanks to the contribution of the great oenologist Giacomo Tachis.
Tignanello which today is one of the most famous Italian labels and coveted by collectors around the world, among the top 100 brands according to the Liv-Ex fine wine index and among the 15 most sought after wines according to Wine-Searcher. And, in its own way, an Italian milestone. Produced in blend with Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc, it was the first Sangiovese to be aged in barriques, the first modern red wine blended with non-traditional varieties of the territory (such as Cabernet), and among the first red wines in Chianti Classico not to use white grapes.
A historic wine, produced only in the best vintages, particularly dear to Piero Antinori, perhaps the most esteemed of Italian producers - today honorary president, but active and present in Marchesi Antinori, led by his daughter Albiera, with his sisters Allegra and Alessia, and with the managing director Renzo Cotarella, perhaps, will have toasted to this important purchase, and to 50 years of Tignanello, uncorking the historic 1971, the one of the debut, or 1975, the first in which the Sangiovese was added to the Cabernet, or 2001, the one of 30 years, or even the more recent 2016, awarded by Italian and international critics, and n. 1 of the “Top 100 Cellar Selection” of the US magazine “Wine Enthusiast”.