This was the glory period of Lorenzo the Magnificent (see coltibuon in these Five Wines) and the period when Florence was being transformed from a medieval city to a Renaissance one. Incidentally, costs have changed over the 550 years. At that time the palace cost “4,000 large florins ! ”Enough of this introduction. I shall now essay to compress the entire Antinori dynasty and their activities into a few short pages.

 

As Antinori has never been bought or sold there is no real company history, their history is that of the family above.

 The Antinoris have developed with the ages and formed companies adapted to the times. Today they are officially registered as Marchesi Antinori Srl.

 

 

WHO’S WHO
Piero Antinori, the President of Antinori is Marchese Piero Antinori.

He has been described as “brilliant activator, progressive, innovative and respectful of tradition. Intelligent, shrewd and eloquent”.

He was born July 1938, second child of Marchese Niccolò Antinori.The timeline gives more details.Piero says “I started drinking at age 15; wine has always been an integral part of my life. I started work with the company when I was 18”.
He qualified in Economics and Commercial Science. He did his wine training with the great Emile Peynaud (as I did ! ). He joined the Company, in 1962, and became CEO when his father, Niccolò, retired.

He was largely responsible for the upgrading of Chianti from D.O.C. to D.O.C.G. in 1984.In 1971, he produced Tignanello, one of the first Super Tuscans.

 

In 1986, he was Decanter’s Man of the Year and, in 1993, he joined Antinori to the great Primae Familiae Group.Today he still manages the company and the estates, aided by his three daughters, and lives chiefly in the Palazzo Antinori.

Albiera, Eldest daughter of Piero, born December 1966. Educated in Florence with a Masters in Communication. Studied viticulture at the University of Florence and Oenology at San Michele All’ Adige. She joined the company, in 1988. She married and has two children, Vittorio and Verdiana.
Today she is Piero’s right-hand lady and President of Prunotto. She is Image and Communications Manager for Antinori. She also deals with Real Estate, Building, Restoration and Agriturismo.

Allegra, Second daughter of Piero, she was born December 1971. She is married with two children –Niccolò and Vivia. She joined the family business, in 1990. Studied oenology and worked with Mondavi. Today she is responsible for Antinori interests outside the wine business.

These interests include restaurants in Florence, Zurich, Vienna and Moscow and the Osteria di Passignano on their vineyard property. Also a gourmet store, Procacci, in Florence and an organic food production unit at Guado al Tasso

Alessia,Third daughter of Piero, born December 1975. Educated in Florence, she then vintaged in many Antinori estates. She graduated in Viticulture and Oenology at the University of Milan, in 1988, and duly became the Company Oenologist.

 

This she does today as well as managing the Montenisa project – a sparkling wine from Franciacorta. In addition to all this she looks after the commercial exports to emerging countries such as China and India.

Renzo Cotarella, Renzo is 50 years old and has spent 30 of them with Antinori. Today he is the Managing Director and their chief Oenologist, Viticulturist and Winemaker.

 

He comes from a winemaking family in Montrubiaglio and graduated, in 1978, at the University of Agrarian Science in Perugia. He is a specialist in soils and how to match them with grape varieties, which he studied deeply in Orvieto.

He became the winemaker at Castello della Sala, in 1981, after being there part time, since 1977. Thus he has completed 30 years with Antinori. He is a vital kingpin to them. They feel, very intelligently, that it is important to have somebody outside the family, with an unbiased view. He also bridges the generation gap between Piero and his daughters. He is part of the essence of the company and a very important part.

Ludovico Antinori, some people have advised me to leave him out of this article. He is, however, Piero’s brother and the uncle of his three daughters.

True he is not part of the company and has peddled his own canoe, not always to the liking of his family. It was he who created the famous Ornellaia and made it into such a fabulous success.

After a number of complicated transactions, Ornellaia has ended up in the hands of a major rival Tuscan wine family. That is the way of the world and it was Ludovico’s to do with as he wished.

Today he is as energetic as ever and lives in Switzerland. He has started a new project - Campo di Sasso - together with the son of Piero’ sister, Ilaria. The Antinori Company is lending its assistance. Thus there is a happy “rapprochement”, which must be highsatisfactory for all parties concerned.

ANTINORI PROPERTIES
Piero says “our roots are in our vineyards. Chianti Classico is still the most important part of our business. During the last 15 years we have decided to expand outside this area, to areas such as Montalcino, Montepulciano, Bolgheri, Umbria, etc. More recently further afield and abroad. The following shows a list of the holdings, together with the date that they came into the business.

In Tuscany
Palazzo Antinori Florence - In the family since 1506

San Casciano Val di Pesa Winery
Chianti Classico - 1898

Tignanello
Chianti Classico - 1900
A jewel in the crown, together with Solaia. This is 30 kilometres south of Florence. A 347 hectare property of which 147 are vineyards. 47 hectares form the Tignanello vineyard and just 10 hectares are the great Solaia. The slopes for these wines are at 350-450 metres above sea level. The soil is Pliocene-marl. Here also there are 37 hectares of olive groves.

Guado al Tasso
Bolgheri, Maremma - 1934
Situated 96 kilometres south of Florence. Owned for many years, they have only been marketing fine wine since 1984 and great red wine since 1994.

It is a huge estate of one thousand hectares, with 300 hectares of vines. 60 metres above sea level.

La Cantinetta Antinori, Florence - 1957
Peppoli - Chianti Classico - 1985
100 hectares with 62 under vines. This is 5 kilometres north- east of Tignanello and makes D.O.C.G. Chianti Classico.

Planted with Sangiovese, Merlot, Syrah and Malvasia. Bought to celebrate 600 years of Wine Making. There are 27 hectares of olive groves.

Badia a Passignano
Chianti Classico - 1987
Just 3 kilometres south of Tignanello. On this property they found a 1000 year old Vitis Vinifera plant. It is planted with 50 hectares of Sangiovese and a certain amount of French grape varieties. Badia a Passignano Riserva is one of their great wines. Here also there is a fine restaurant.

La Braccesca
Montepulciano - 1990
Making Vin Nobile de Montepulciano D.O.C.G. as well as Cortona D.O.C. It has the massive amount of 237 hectares of vines in production. It lies just outside Montepulciano.

Monteloro
near Fiesole (north of Florence) - 1990
This was first rented and then bought, in 1990. It is 15 kilometres north-west of Florence. Since it lies at a height of 450 metres it is perfect for making fine Chardonnay.

Pian della Vigne
Montalcino - 1995
Situated 6 kilometres south of Montalcino. Making Brunello di Montalcino. 186 hectares of land of which 60 are under vines. These are 100% Sangiovese (locally called Brunello).

 

 

Fattoria Aldobrandesca
Sovana, Pitgliano - 1995
Originally called Tenimenti Sovana, this makes the little known Savana D.O.C. In the south of the Maremma, it is planted with Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec. Also some Aleatico. Here we have 195 hectares of vineyards. It is very hot ! The first wine produced was in 1998. This was an old centre of Etruscan civilisation and the soil is volcanic.

Procacci gourmet Shop
Florence - 1997
Le Mortelle - Southern Tuscany - 1999
Deep in southern Tuscany, in the lower Maremma. It is almost at sea level. It makes Montereggio di Massa Marittima D.O.C. There are 270 hectares of which 160 are planted with vineyards. These are Sangiovese and Cabernet Sauvignon. The wine from this estate is not yet in production. They intend to build a new winery here.

Fonte de’ Medici Farm Houses
Chianti Classico - 2000
Others holdings in Italy

Castello della Sala - Ficulle - 1940
Making Orvieto ClassicoDOC. Here there are 160 hectares of land with 50 under vines. This was bought by Niccolò Antinori, who wanted to make White Wines.

Prunotto` - Alba - 1990
Tormaresca - Bocca di Lupo & Masseria Maime - 1998

Montenisa - Franciacorta - 2000
In The World Outside Italy
*Atlas Peak Vineyards - Napa Valley - 1987
Situated just above Stags Leap, Antinori started to develop this with Whitbread, in 1985. Whitbread were sold to Allied Domecq.

Bollinger (who had been linked to Whitbread) sold them 10%, but Antinori stayed with Allied. Allied later sold off all their assets and Antinori moved in and made a deal. The present agreement expires, in 2008, and Antinori will take back the management and become 100% untrammelled owners of Atlas Peak.

*Bataapati - Mocseny, Szekszard - 1991

*Meridiana - 1993

*Col Solare - 1998

*Albis, Vina Haras de Pirque - 1999
This is a joint venture (like all the properties marked with a star) with the Matte family. It is certainly one of the most famous properties in Chile.
We must not forget a new little venture in KYRGHISTAN. It only has 8 hectares, but is a humanitarian venture backed by Antinori.

This shows the enormous extent of the Antinori holdings, which in total amount to rather over 1,100 hectares of vineyards. It also demonstrates how wide their interests are. Once again space forbad anything more than the very briefest overview of just some of them, which I regret !

 

 

Note that I put soils in the plural. How can I begin to describe the soil with estates all over Tuscany, Italy and the world ? Each estate needs to be treated separately, but that would take up the entire edition of TASTED !

 

This is therefore mercifully short and I state merely that every imaginable soil composition is encountered at some place on the Antinori estates – volcanic, clay, gravel, marl, calcareous etc. etc.
They have all been professionally analysed to considerable depths and the oenologists and agronomists have, within all reasonable limits, adapted the grape varieties and the rootstocks to each soil, not omitting to take into consideration the lie of the land, its exposure, its slopes and the climate and local micro-climate. This is a full time job for many people and Piero refers to it in his “philosophy of wine making”.

I know that I keep repeating myself, but I can do no less with so much different material. With such a variety of estates, exposures, soils and grape varieties, they have, of necessity, many systems of pruning, each adapted to the above. Single Spur pruning is the most common.

 

Also, today, the most common density of plantation is 5,000 vines per hectare. 30 years ago, in Tuscany, you found vineyards with as few as 2,000 vines per hectare. More vines mean more work, more cost, hopefully much more quality !
Now, quality is Antinori’s philosophy, but 30 years ago life was hard and cruel and maximum yield for maximum quantity was what was most important for most people. Then, the calories from strong red wines were part of the daily requirement for nourishment. Today wine is for pleasure and nobody counts the calories.For the Sangiovese they sometimes prune on a modified Guyot system. This translates into the arms being arched rather than taken straight along the wires.

Antinori does grass between rows on a number of estates, for vigour and for humidity control, but this is only done where they truly feel that the terrain requires it.

 

Frequently this means the clay soils.New laws are in the offing at the moment, in Chianti, about irrigation. For Chianti Classico it is not yet permitted, but is expected to be so soon.

Some other Italian D.O.C.s now have per-mission to irrigate under very strict controls, rules and regulations. Piero says very simply “It does not all matter very much as there is a legal production limit to our D.O.C. wines, so if you are trying to make quality wines all that you need to do is to keep the vines alive and healthy”.

However, even he would admit that, during the summer of 2003, a number of young vines on soils that did not retain water came to a shrivelled end ! He says that styles have changed completely in Chianti Classico over the last 12 years. A lot of this is due to advances in viticultural understanding.

More so than due to public taste. Sangiovese had two main problems :
1. COLOUR. It was too pale. It was hard to get a deep colour out of 100% Sangiovese.
2. INSUFFICIENT SUGAR. There was often less than 11° potential alcohol in the musts. Today, partly due to climate warming, but more to do with modern viticultural techniques, the musts and subsequent wines sometimes have almost TOO MUCH, both colour and alcohol.

Oenologists must be very careful. We also must not forget that, unlike Burgundy, chaptalisation is strictly forbidden here for Chianti Classico.Piero states that in ALL their vineyards Antinori respects the ecosystem and could be regarded as practicing “Lutte Raisonnée” although they do not proclaim to do so as such and do not belong to any organic Charter or Consortium.

Piero prefers to do without them and respect the soil and the ecosystem in his own way. More and more of their vines are grown organically and their olive oil production, which is hugely important to them, is totally organic. They practice sexual confusion in the vineyards.Flavescence Doré has regretfully arrived in Italy, but to the best of Piero’s knowledge, it has not yet reached Tuscany.

The olive trees have Esca, but do not seem to have passed it on to the vineyards. Perhaps they are too respectful ! but perhaps also the clones have been so vastly improved that they are more resistant.Antinori has been doing its own massal selection at Passignano, using wonderful, old and healthy vegetal material. For them, this preserves intact the personality and individuality of their wines, which clonal selection cannot do.


WINEMAKING

Naturally again, as with soil, with such a vast variety of grapes over their 1,100 hectares, some of them have to be machine picked. All the finest grapes, destined for the finest wines, continue to be hand-picked. Piero finds that the machine does as well as the pickers if the grapes are ripe and healthy.

The grapes go into small pickers’ baskets and then into big containers. Sorting is done when they arrive at the cellars.At present they do not have the “à-la-mode” sorting tables before and after the destalking machine. However, they do have moving, vibrating and perforated conveyor belts. They intend to install the latest modern sorting equipment for Tignanello and Solaia in the very near future.

Piero does not like concrete. He is quite clear about this. He has part wood and part stainless steel vats, but is moving away from wood and increasing the percentage of stainless steel. For his finer wines he favours small, conical, stainless steel vats for meticulous parcellar selection.

 

For Piero, his top wines also include the white wines at Guado al Tasso and Badia a Passignano.He believes in cold soaking, at low temperatures, prior to fermentation, for his white grapes. He does NOT cold soak the red.

Fermentation temperature is never allowed to exceed 30°C and gentle, regular extraction is favoured, even if this takes longer. “If you push the grapes they turn sour on you”, he quips. Colour extraction (as explained above) is less of a problem today than it used to be, so “pushing” is unnecessary. The aim, today, is to get maximum elegance, without too much tannin, extract, alcohol or colour.

 

 

Selected, cultured yeasts are used, on the whole, entirely for the White Wines, but they do not care for enzymes. Skin contact, after fermentation, is kept relatively short.After fermentation, the malo-lactic fermentation for Tignanello and for Solaia is done partly in barrel and partly in vat. For most of the other wines it is done in vat.They draw their wooden vats and barrels from a multitude of coopers, with different woods and different toastings to suit each different wine. Solaia goes into 100% new oak and Tignanello into 50%.

Not content with all this, they own their own cooperage in Hungary – “European Coopers”. Like all the great wine makers, Antinori stresses that all the above processes are subject to vintages, conditions and, above all, to tasting. For their top wines this is very much so, even if their less high volume wines are made rather more by their rule book.

Racking is done according to need rather than systematically. Solaia usually enjoys three rackings during its life in barrel, but this also can be varied subject to tasting.I found it a fascinating insight into the Antinori philosophy of leaving nothing to chance, that they used to have their own chicken farm, near Livorno.

 This to provide eggs for fining. The hens were a cross between a local variety and the Poulet de Bresse. The farm has been greatly reduced due to the advent of Asian flu. They still have some chickens there, and hope to increase the farm again when danger is past. Chicken for dinner anyone ?

Before bottling, the wines are filtered lightly. This is a cleaning filtration only and does not strip at all. It is light enough for Antinori to describe the wines as “unfiltered”.
We should perhaps have talked about blending earlier. The reason that we did not is that it depends WHEN it is done. Antinori, more and more, prefer to do it at the end of the ageing process.

For the better wines this means at the end of its life in barrel. For Piero this is something of a change and he regards it as part of his practical, pragmatic and progressive approach.

 

ADDENDUM
... Sadly, the great TIBOR GALL, the winemaker here for so many years, died in a car crash, in his native Hungary, in 2005 ...

2005 CERVARO DELLA SALA, UMBRIA IGT.
Chardonnay and Grechetto
COLOUR : Fine, pale, brilliant, yellow straw gold. Most attractive.
NOSE : This nose is rich, ripe and fat. It is very perfumed and fragrant and comes up at you out of the glass before you put your nose in. Chardonnay predominates firmly. Fine and gracious.
PALATE : Like the nose, this could easily be White Burgundy and the Chardonnay predominates on the palate as well. Rich and spicy. Surprisingly spicy on the first mouth. The mouth-feel is ripe and generous and mouth-filling. Blind, I would never have guessed Italian. Very long in the mouth, but with splendid clean and driving freshness. The wine goes on and on, finishes strongly and has a lingering aftertaste. Ripe, fat, full-flavoured and fine. Will age with grace but is delicious now.

2001 BADIA A PASSIGNANO, CHIANTI CLASSICO DOCG.
100% Sangiovese
COLOUR: Deep and extremely youthful, bright colour. The edge is still almost purple turning ruby. Astonishingly young.
NOSE : Huge, pungent and fragrant nose. Black and red fruits combined, but finishing on red ones. Absolutely Sangiovese, with fresh, vigorous acidity.
PALATE : This wine is restrained and elegant in spite of its evident power. The flavours are very concentrated, very intense, dark and powerful and here on the palate the fruit is both black and spicy. Dense and by no means ready to drink yet. Wait a few more years for the powerful, yet ripe, tannins to soften. This has fine Sangiovese austerity with grip on the strong finish. A big wine, which show that Sangiovese can have both elegance and power!

2003 TIGNANELLO, TOSCANA IGT. 13.5°.
Majority Sangiovese with a little Cabernet Sauvignon
COLOUR : Lovely vivid, ruby-crimson with red-crimson edge. Bright and ruby flame reflections.
NOSE : Clean, spicy and generous. Open and deep with both light mineral and subtle herbal tones. Elegant and fragrant fruit. Appealing and fresh. Charm.
PALATE : Very spicy on the palate. Rich and warm and generous, but skilfully avoids being heavy or massive or in any way overpowering. Attractive, smoky and ripe. Lovely balance. This is a joyous expression of Sangiovese, succulent and fruity. Totally melted tannins. Delicious and satisfying.

2003 SOLAIA, TOSCANA IGT.
COLOUR : Deep, intense crimson-garnet with a red crimson edge. Intense. Beautiful.
NOSE : Deep and profound. Black fruit and elegant spices. Smoky. Intensely ripe but in no way overripe. The nose fills the nasal passages and continues long and intense.
PALATE : A big and rich wine. Spicy, rich and exuberant fruit in the mouth. Deep and intensely concentrated without losing finesse or elegance. A very powerfully structured wine with a long life ahead of it. The fruit is very pure.Pure Italy, pure Tuscany, pure Antinori, with personality and character and complexity. The delicious touch of the bitter grip on the final mouth-feel is masterly. Great wine.

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