Wine lovers prick up their ears at the graceful sound of the name "Antinori". Because hardly any other family has shaped Italian winemaking history as strongly as the noble family with its headquarters in Florence. For more than six centuries, the noble family has stood for premium quality drops of pleasure.

Antinori wines - the story of an Italian legend

The success story of the Marchese-Antinori noble family begins in Florence at the end of the 14th century. The initiator is Giovanni di Pietro Antinori. The son of a wealthy Florentine trading family makes a groundbreaking decision: He leaves his hometown of Florence to establish a wine-growing region in the fertile surrounding area – with great success. As early as the 17th and 18th centuries, the Antinori family expanded their culinary empire. She acquires small country estates and vineyards in Tuscany and lets her quality wines mature under the best Mediterranean growing conditions.

In the meantime, the Florence noble family can call some of the most valuable vineyards and wineries in Italy their own. Tignanello, Santa Maria and Paterno are considered its greatest wine pearls.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the Antinori family dared to try new culinary creations and thus reinvented classic Italian viticulture. From the famous French wine-growing region of Champagne, they import the revolutionary Méthode traditional, which brought Italy the first sparkling wine in 1908. Another culinary revolution took place in the early 1930s. With the Villa Antinori, a dry red wine with a strong character, they have achieved an aromatic stroke of genius. To this day, the Chianti Classico is considered the flagship of the Antinori winery.

Since 1968 the wine-growing area has been in the hands of Piero Antinori. When he took over the historic growing area from his father Niccolò, he faced great challenges. It was not until 1966 that there was a severe flood. The Arno river had overflowed and severely damaged the western part of the wine cellar. Countless valuable wine barrels and systems fell victim to the flood. It was not without reason that the winery had to contend with high costs and a severe loss of image. But Piero was not discouraged by the dry spell. He used the crisis to bring a breath of fresh air to the traditions of the growing region - with success. His greatest merit, temperature-controlled steel tanks, are still represented in the wine cellars today.

Today, Piero continues his family's traditional viticulture together with his three daughters Allegra, Albiera and Alessia. By joining forces, they now manage 14 wineries in Italy and around 20 international joint ventures. All are navigated from the impressive headquarters in Bargino.

The family owns several large wineries and wineries in the popular wine-growing regions of Piedmont, Puglia, Umbria and Tuscany. The Antinori family has recently been represented with their quality wines in California. The impressive total area under vines of around 1,200 hectares is all the less surprising.

Tignanello and Solaia: Two Italian flagship wines

A 150-hectare wine-growing region has settled directly on the famous Tignanello vineyard in Mercatale, which flows gently into the Solaia site. Two of the finest wines in Italy are produced on the spacious area. The first flagship wine is called Tignanello. Since 1970, the cuvée has been setting culinary accents with 80 percent Sangiovese and 20 percent Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc.

A second flagship wine followed just a few years later. The full-bodied cuvée consists of 80 percent Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc and 20 percent Sangiovese. The exclusive drop matured in the Solaia site, a wine-growing region that is now famous for its top wines, better known as "Super Tuscans".

A little anecdote: without the curiosity and love of experimentation of owner Piero Antinori, the two wine icons would probably never have come into existence. Because not every winegrower dared to violate the Italian wine law as much as the visionary wine connoisseur. The secret of his success: For the first time, he completely dispensed with white grape varieties for the Tignanello and instead added Cabernet Sauvignon and Sangiovese in barriques. That was the birth of a completely new breed of Super Tuscans.

Oenology for winegrowers and wine lovers

The wine empire of the Florence noble family is not only well received in the glasses. The lively wine tours through the Italian wine-growing regions are also very popular. Whether it's a journey of discovery through the wine cellar or a walk through the vineyards and wine paths - in front of an impressive natural backdrop in Tuscany, winegrowers and wine lovers can immerse themselves in six hundred years of Antinori traditions.