Antinori Tignanello 2022

Antinori Tignanello 2022 (Marchesi Antinori Tignanello, Toscana IGT) is one of the wines that wrote the modern history of Tuscany. The first vintage was 1971, and Tignanello is today regarded as one of the very first Super Tuscans. The 2022 has been rated 98 points by Wine Advocate and 96 by James Suckling.

Taste and ageing

2022 is rich and elegant, with ripe cherries, blackcurrant, violet, spice and cedar. The tannins are silky and the finish long and precise. It is inviting already, yet has the structure to develop for 20 years or more.

Vineyard and winemaking

The grapes come from the Tignanello vineyard at Tenuta Tignanello in the heart of Chianti Classico, between the Greve and Pesa river valleys. The vineyard lies 350–400 metres above sea level on calcareous galestro and alberese soils. The wine is around 80% Sangiovese with Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc and is aged for 14–16 months in barriques.

About Antinori and the first Super Tuscans

The Antinori family has made wine in Tuscany since 1385 and is now in its 26th generation. In the early 1970s Piero Antinori set out to create a new kind of Tuscan red. Together with oenologist Giacomo Tachis, and with advice from the French professor Émile Peynaud, he aged Sangiovese in small French barrels, and Cabernet later joined the blend. This fell outside the Chianti rules, so for many years Tignanello was sold as table wine, vino da tavola. The quality spoke for itself, and the wine became the model for a whole generation of Super Tuscans.

Serving

Serve at 16–18 °C in large glasses. Young vintages benefit from an hour in a decanter.