Tenuta Tignanello (Antinori)

From the medieval estate to Antinori ownership

The property is documented from 1346, when its land belonged to the Buondelmonti, a noble family that controlled much of Valle della Pesa. The present manor house was built in the sixteenth century on the foundations of that earlier estate.

During the seventeenth century, the property passed to a cadet branch of the Medici family, which named it Fonte dei Medici. The Antinori family acquired the estate in the mid-nineteenth century.

In 1892, Carocci’s historical and artistic guide to San Casciano Val di Pesa described Tignanello as a farm with extensive vineyards and as one of the highest and most picturesque places in the commune.

The experimental period of the 1970s

During the 1970s, Tenuta Tignanello became Marchesi Antinori’s principal laboratory for viticultural and winemaking research. Work included introducing Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc, revisiting planting density and pruning, selecting Sangiovese material and adopting new cellar techniques. The objective in the vineyard was to obtain more concentrated fruit with softer tannins.

The wine now known as Tignanello began in 1970 as Chianti Classico Riserva Vigneto Tignanello, produced from a single vineyard. Its blend contained 20% Canaiolo and a combined 5% Trebbiano and Malvasia, and it was aged in small oak barrels.

With the 1971 vintage, the wine left the Chianti Classico category, became a Tuscan table wine and adopted the name Tignanello. It became the first Sangiovese wine aged in barriques, the first modern regional red blended with a non-traditional variety such as Cabernet, and one of the first Chianti Classico-area reds made without white grapes. No Tignanello was produced in 1972, 1973 or 1974.

The design for the Tignanello label originated from a 1973 discussion at Castello della Sala. Silvio Coppola completed the label in 1974 for the release of the 1971 vintage, creating its stylized sun. Piero Antinori chose to place the signature of his father, Niccolò Antinori, on the label in recognition of the confidence Niccolò had shown in him.

White grapes were definitively removed from Tignanello beginning with the 1975 vintage. The wine was not made in 1976.

Solaia and the consolidation of the estate’s wines

Solaia was first produced in 1978 from the sunniest section of the Tignanello hillside. Its initial composition was 80% Cabernet Sauvignon and 20% Cabernet Franc, repeated in 1979. In subsequent vintages, 20% Sangiovese was introduced and the relative proportions of Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc were adjusted until the present composition was established. Solaia was not produced in 1980, 1981, 1983, 1984 or 1992.

The composition of Tignanello has remained unchanged since 1982. As it is bottled only in favourable vintages, it was also omitted in 1984, 1992 and 2002.

The first vintage of Vinsanto Tenute Marchese Antinori was produced in 1987. Its grapes come from Antinori estates in Chianti Classico, while their natural drying takes place in the dedicated drying room at Tenuta Tignanello. Small parcels of Malvasia and Trebbiano are maintained at Tignanello for Vinsanto production.

Cellar renewal and later developments

The estate’s vinification cellar was completely renovated between 2008 and 2009. Tignanello and Solaia have separate vinification and maturation cellars, allowing each vineyard’s lots to be handled independently.

Beginning with the 2011 vintage, the historic Marchese Antinori Chianti Classico Riserva has been produced from grapes grown at Tenuta Tignanello.

The estate’s vineyards are divided into small parcels, allowing differences in site and grape variety to be considered individually. During the 1970s, Tenuta Tignanello became a centre for experiments in planting density, pruning and the selection of Sangiovese, alongside the introduction and evaluation of Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc.

These trials pursued greater concentration in the grapes together with softer tannins. Sangiovese selection and the adaptation of Cabernet varieties to the estate’s limestone-rich, stony soils became central to this work.

The combination of parcel-based cultivation, southwest-facing slopes and pronounced day-to-night temperature differences informs the separation of the Tignanello and Solaia vineyard identities. Small Malvasia and Trebbiano parcels supply fruit for Vinsanto, while 37 hectares of the property are devoted to olive groves.

Tignanello and Solaia have separate facilities for vinification and maturation. This arrangement allows the fruit and lots from the two neighbouring vineyards to be handled independently and the details of each wine’s development to be managed separately. The vinification cellar was completely renovated between 2008 and 2009.

The estate’s historical experimental role included ageing Sangiovese in small oak barrels and barriques, incorporating Cabernet into a modern Tuscan red blend and eliminating white grapes from that blend. These changes developed through the 1970, 1971 and 1975 vintages of Tignanello.

Tenuta Tignanello also contains the drying room used for Vinsanto Marchese Antinori. Selected Trebbiano and Malvasia clusters from Antinori’s Chianti Classico estates are harvested into crates, arranged manually on mats and allowed to dry naturally until the end of December. After gentle pressing, the must ferments slowly in caratelli made from different woods and holding 50–200 litres. The wine remains in these small casks for approximately three years before blending and bottling.