2011 Antinori 'Tignanello,' Toscana IGT

Tignanello is the name that was given in the 1970s to a new wine produced by the ancient house of Antinori (wine producers since 1385) and takes its name from the Tenuta di Tignanello production area in the town of San Casciano in Val di Pesa. Made in 1971, Tignanello was one of the first red wines produced here without white grapes, and with the cabernet sauvignon and cabernet franc grape varieties. Tignanello is regarded as an innovative pioneer of the modern Italian top wines, the so-called Super Tuscans, and has decisively shaped Italian viticulture.

The wine was produced for the first time in 1970 by Piero Antinori. It had the characteristic of combining Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc grapes and to be aged in a type of barrel called a barrique, leaving in fact the historical disciplinary of the Chianti Classico DOCG wines as established by Bettino Ricasoli. For this reason it lost the name DOC and remained the only generic indication of table wine until 1994 when it could boast of the Indicazione Geografica Tipica.