The Wine That Changed Tuscany Forever

Tignanello wine put an international spotlight on Tuscan wines when it launched in the early 1970s, commencing the Super Tuscan revolution. In October 2019, one of the winemakers behind the legendary label — winemaking icon Marchese Piero Antinori — was able to relive his career in one evening through a curated tasting of every vintage of Tignanello ever produced up to that point. Straight from his flight from Florence, Antinori walked into New York City's Del Posto, which would host the extraordinary affair.

"I've never participated in a complete tasting of Tignanello, with all the vintages," Antinori said before the event. "Tignanello represents, in a way, my whole working life."

The inaugural vintage was 1971, but that wasn't the year Antinori was most excited to taste. That would be the 1975, which many consider one of the greatest Italian vintages of the last century — a wine he wasn't sure he would ever get to taste again.

"We produced a small amount of wine that year. It was the second vintage of Tignanello after 1971, and the wine was very successful," Antinori said. "Without even realizing, very shortly, we ran out of this vintage. Now the 1975 is even more rare than the 1971."

Del Posto's wine director at the time, Evan Clagnaz, spent seven months tracking down every single vintage to make this tasting happen. The work paid off: the historic dinner sold out in less than 24 hours.

"It's such an iconic wine. It's a gateway wine, in a way, especially in the Super Tuscan category," Clagnaz said. "And it's really a fairly affordable wine. Something that everybody really recognizes. It was important for Italy, it transformed a region, and it changed winemaking."

In a small dining room at Del Posto, with all 39 bottles lit by candlelight, Antinori and longtime winemaker Renzo Cotarella sat at a large dining table surrounded by an intimate group of collectors and Tignanello lovers. The staff had prepared 39 glasses for every diner, each marked with a vintage.

Antinori entered the tasting from a historical perspective, viewing the wines as an evolution within two significant eras of Tignanello. He made the first 20 vintages with Giacomo Tachis and the second period with his right-hand man, Cotarella, who kept diners very entertained throughout the five-hour, eight-course dinner. Cotarella shared very specific memories about every vintage, which he joked he knows better than someone knows their own children. He didn't think the purpose of the tasting was to choose favorites among the vintages but to gain a deeper understanding of the place.

Everyone was curious to see how the style of the wines changed over time. "Although the basic character of the wine remains the same because of the terroir, the soil, the climate, I think there has been an evolution in style," Antinori said.

Though the Antinori Family has been in the wine industry for more than 600 years, the situation wasn't great in Italy when Piero Antinori was preparing to start running the family business in the 1960s. Italian wines, including Tuscan wines and the wines of Chianti Classico, weren't highly regarded, especially in the United States. It's fair to say that Piero Antinori spearheaded a renaissance in Italian wine.

Once Antinori took over, he started playing with different grape varieties, looking for ways to improve winemaking in the region. As the reputation and prices of these wines continued to drop, he knew something had to change to avoid this downward spiral.

"I started to make experiments," Antinori said, "especially in one vineyard. The name of the vineyard was Tignanello, which is a historical name; it was our best vineyard." That vineyard proved to be the epicenter of the experiment that would forever change the Antinori story and, subsequently, Italian wine.

Antinori's relationship with French winemaker and University of Bordeaux professor Émile Peynaud, who suggested changes that would soon become innovations in the region, also affected Tignanello wine's character. Peynaud suggested that Antinori stop using white grapes in the production of the wine — a requirement at the time for Chianti Classico's DOC (Denominazione di Origine Controllata) regulations. Tignanello would be demoted to mere table-wine status by breaking those rules, but Antinori accepted that. Peynaud also pushed Antinori to consider aging the wine in new oak, specifically the barriques traditionally used in Bordeaux, rather than in the large, old barrels traditional in the region at that time.

"By making these changes vis-à-vis the tradition we used to have, the results were very promising," Antinori said. "But unfortunately, we couldn't call it Chianti Classico."

Despite that and a fair amount of controversy in the region at the time, Antinori released the first of the 39 vintages poured at the tasting.

Tignanello effectively created the Super Tuscan category by breaking the rules and incorporating non-traditional varieties with Sangiovese in its blend — and dozens of other wines followed. Though this revolution lost some of its shock value over time, as regulations for Chianti Classico followed by example and evolved, this has yet to affect the labeling of Tignanello. It still holds the name of the place where it comes from.

Tignanello tasting notes

1975: The 1975 remains a lively wine over 40 years later. Excitement had built for a vintage so rare, and luckily, the wine performed. The Sangiovese blend with 10% Cabernet Sauvignon is meaty and herbal and still shows red fruit with noticeable signs of age in the form of dried earth, old leather, and prunes — an elegant wine with an age that is hard to believe.

1979: This wine tastes more mature than the '75 but still maintains freshness. It is a much lighter style of Sangiovese, blended with 15% Cabernet Sauvignon. Again, it's hard to believe this wine is approaching half a century. It has a character of herbal tea, mulling spices, and leather. Antinori shared that they were concerned the wine would be able to age so well and maintain its integrity due to the large quantity produced and its delicate quality.

1993: As the wines approached the mid-1980s, the complexity increased, and the fruit character became evermore present. Renzo Cotarella said the 1993 has the "soul of Tignanello" and "tastes as Tignanello should." The wine (85% Sangiovese, 15% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Cabernet Franc) is fresh, with noticeable acidity, an herbal quality, red fruit, dried flowers, and notes of mint, cocoa, vanilla, and licorice. This wine marked the shift into the second part of the tasting in which Tignanello evolved stylistically towards how it is known today, a wine of grace and finesse.

2015: The 2015 (85% Sangiovese, 15% Cabernet Sauvignon) showed impressive elegance and perfume for a Tignanello at such a young age. Mouthwatering acidity with notes of red cherry, blackberries, rose water, and ripe raspberries. Though faint, the fresh herbs were there, while the ripe fruit, new leather, and spices were more noticeable. The wine is ready to drink now, though it will age very well.

2016: "These last four glasses are probably the best vintages of Tignanello ever made," Cotarella said. 2016 was a slightly cooler vintage, made with 80% Sangiovese, 13% Cabernet Sauvignon, and  7% Cabernet Franc and, like 2015, is now thought of as one of the great Tuscan vintages. It has the elegance and expressiveness that Antinori looks for, with notes of juicy black and red cherries, autumn spices, fresh herbs, wet earth, and red apple skin. Though this is very drinkable now, it has impressive aging capabilities and will develop new layers of flavor over decades.

Other favorites from the evening: 1986, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2008, 2010, 2011.