Tignanello 2021, Tenuta Antinori - Fine Wine Offer
£189.95 per bottle
NEW
I have drunk Tignanello more times than I can remember, but in the last few years, I have somewhat lost touch with this wine as it has skyrocketed in fame and price and doesn’t tread the boards in the UK quite like it used to. It seems like only yesterday, Tig, as we used to call it, was a twenty- or thirty-pound wine. I am aware that a couple of celebrities have helped it on its way to today’s nosebleed price, but bearing in mind oceans of the world’s big reds trouble the £200 mark, perhaps this is the new norm. My only issue is that the preceding two wines represent utterly awesome value for money. Tignanello’s price has a stardust and fame quotient that takes its admittedly delicious flavour into a price zone few can afford.
2021 marks Tignanello’s fiftieth birthday; it was first launched in 1971, although it was not released in seven lesser vintages within this half-century. This is a very exuberant and modern Tuscan red wine made from Sangiovese, with around 20% of Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc making up the numbers. It is a style that unites lovers of intensely black-fruit-driven and charry-oak-imbued wines. If you are already a Tignanello fan, you will fall at this vintage’s feet because it is incredibly forward and astoundingly well-balanced. If you are new to Super-Tuscans, you will need a run-up because the flavour is as intense and it is immense, but it still manages to retain freshness and a sense of minerality which, in itself, is remarkable given its fruit weight. I have to hand it to Tignanello because it manages to keep one foot in the past with its indelible Tuscan flair and sense of place while embracing the vibrancy and muscularity of many wines that appeal to the hundred-point brigade. I very much enjoyed tasting this wine. Yet I would love to see it in twenty years when its glossiness and theatricality will have faded, and its vineyard characteristics will undoubtedly shine through.
19+/20 Matthew Jukes
First made in 1971, this legendary Italian wine now celebrates its 50th birthday. Happy Birthday, Tignanello! The Marchesi Antinori 2021 Tignanello (made with 79% Sangiovese, 13% Cabernet Sauvignon and 8% Cabernet Franc) pulls on all the heartstrings. To be released in May, the wine shows a quintessentially pretty taste profile with tart fruit flavors, redcurrant, tea leaf, heritage rose, crushed white pepper, licorice, nutmeg, clove and chopped mint. It opens slowly to reveal more richness and exuberance with time, becoming downright voluptuous and heady a short while later. The through line, however, remains the bright freshness and minerality of Sangiovese. Compared to the 2018 vintage (which I also loved), this vintage has more overall fruit weight and volume. 2025-2048
98/100
Monica Larner, Wine Advocate, March 2024
About
The Tenuta Tignanello estate is in the heart of Chianti Classico, in the gently rolling hillsides between the Greve and Pesa river valleys. It extends over an area of 319 hectares (788 acres), of which about 130 (321 acres) are dedicated to vines. Two of the estate’s prized vineyards are on the same hillside, Tignanello and Solaia, on soils that originated from marine marlstone from the Pliocene period rich in limestone and schist. The vines enjoy hot temperatures during the day and cooler evenings throughout the growing season. The estate’s two signature wines, Solaia and Tignanello, are produced from these vineyards and have been defined by the international press as “among the most influential wines in the history of Italian viticulture”. According to Marchesi Antinori, Solaia and Tignanello are an ongoing challenge and a never-ending passion. The Tignanello estate has vineyards of indigenous Sangiovese grapes as well as some other untraditional varieties such as Cabernet Franc.
