Wine & Spirits - Winter 2017 - 77

Marchesi Antinori

Tenuta delle Terre Nere produces silky reds and ageworthy whites from old
vines on Mt. Etna's northern slope.

Antinori marks its 20th appearance as one of our Top 100 Wineries of the Year
in this issue, led by a pair of Super Tuscans and a Brunello Riserva.

Etna Pioneer: Marco de Grazia was born in the US, raised in Tuscany
and educated at UC Berkeley, where an encounter at a retail wine
shop led to his start in the wine business. Over the next 20 years, de
Grazia traveled throughout Italy, developing a portfolio of wines for
his import business. During visits to Sicily, he fell in love with the
rugged landscape and vinous potential of Mt. Etna and began buying
vineyards on the volcano's northern slope in the early 2000s. De Grazia works exclusively with Etna's native varieties, organically farming
his vines, most of which range from 50 to 100 years of age.

Twenty-six Generations: Marchesi Antinori now owns wine estates in
North and South America, Hungary and even Malta, but the family's
emotional center lies in Tuscany, where 26 generations of Antinoris
have produced wine over the last six centuries. Marchese Piero
Antinori's oldest daughter, Albiera, now holds the reins as president
of the company, working alongside her sisters, Allegra and Alessia.

New Whites: De Grazia was an early proponent of mapping Etna's
vineyards and labeling wines from single crus, or contrade. His initial single-contrada bottlings were reds from nerello mascalese, but
in the excellent 2014 vintage he was able to bottle two single-cru
whites. The 2015 vintage was more challenging, with hail in June and
late-season rains depleting yields by about 30 percent, but careful
selection led to whites that combine opulence and minerality. The
Cuvée delle Vigne Niche Santo Spirito, from carricante plots as high
as 2,460 feet in altitude, is lemony and brisk, with a velvety texture
from fermentation and aging in French oak barrels; the 2015 Calderara Sottana, a carricante vineyard at lower elevation, is richer, with
flavors of lemon meringue, vanilla and sweet spice. De
Grazia's 2015 Etna Bianco, a blend of carricante with
four other indigenous varieties, vinified and aged
in stainless steel, is more chiseled, its mouthwatering acidity propelling flavors of lemon,
white peach and sage through a firm mineral
texture.
Majestic Reds: The nerello mascalese vines
in De Grazia's Guardiola parcels are rooted
in tightly terraced rows that climb more
than 3,000 feet above sea level. In 2014,
Marco de Grazia
those vines produced a vibrant wine with
red plum and sweet spice flavors, its coiled
energy promising more complexity after a few
years in the cellar. The 2014 Feudo di Mezzo is more
friendly today, its dark, plummy flavors infused with
notes of smoke and Asian spice. -S.J.

Super-Tuscan Siblings: At Antinori's Tenuta Tignanello in the Chianti
Classico zone the end of the 2013 vintage saw near-perfect weather
that allowed the sangiovese, cabernet sauvignon and cabernet franc
grapes to ripen well while maintaining acidity. Those three varieties,
in varying proportions, comprise the estate's two top wines, which,
when introduced more than 40 years ago, helped change the landscape of Tuscan wine. Tignanello was the first sangiovese-based wine
to break from Chianti Classico's production conventions back in the
1970s, when Piero Antinori decided to age it in barriques and replace
the blend's traditional white varieties with cabernet. Sangiovese still
predominates in today's blend, yet the 20 percent of cabernet sauvignon and franc shines through in the 2013's black-currant and
tobacco notes, softening the wine's raspy tannins. Solaia represents
the flip side of Tignanello's blend: It's predominantly cabernet sauvignon, with 25 percent sangiovese and 5 percent cabernet
franc. The 2013 is vibrant, poised and polished, with
blackberry and dark plum flavors edged in earthy
tobacco and sweet spice.
Powerful Brunello Riserva: Sangiovese is the
sole variety grown in the 160 acres of vineyard at Antinori's Pian delle Vigne estate.
Most of it goes into a Brunello classico,
but in propitious vintages the estate makes
Brunello Riserva Vigna Ferrovia, named
for the 19th-century railway station on the
Renzo Cotarella
property. The 2010 comes from a benchmark vintage in Montalcino, the dry, moderate
summer followed by warm days and cool nights
at harvest time. The vintage's power is evident in
the wine's ripe flavors and rigid, ferrous tannins, tempered by notes of smoke and spice from more than two years
of aging in oak barrels. Give those tannins a few years to
soften before decanting the wine alongside bistecca alla
Fiorentina.-S.J.
Fiorentina.

DETAILS & TOP WINES

Founded: 2002 * Winemaker/viticulturist: Calogero Statella
Owner: Marco de Grazia * Acres owned: 80 * Annual
production: 21,000 cases * Estate grown: 80%
Importer: deGrazia Imports, Evanston, IL
Website: tenutaterrenere.com

Founded: 1385 * Winemaker/viticulturist: Renzo Cotarella
Owners: Marchese Piero Antinori, with daughters Albiera,
Allegra and Alessia * Acres owned: 3,634 in Tuscany and
Umbria * Annual production: 783,000 cases * Estate
grown: 100% (excluding Santa Cristina) * Importer: Ste.
Michelle Wine Estates, Woodinville, WA * Website: antinori.it

94 2014 Etna Rosso Guardiola $40 (6/17)
94 2015 Etna Bianco Cuvée delle Vigne Niche Santo
Spirito $35 (6/17)
93 2015 Etna Bianco $40 (6/17)

I TALY S ICILY

93 2010 Brunello di Montalcino Riserva Pian delle
Vigne Vigna Ferrovia $125 (4/17)
93 2013 Toscana Solaia $325 (4/17)
92 2013 Toscana Tignanello $110 (4/17)

I TALY T USCANY
WINE & SPIRITS

BUYING GUIDE 2018

TOP 100 WINERIES 2017

Tenuta delle Terre Nere

http://www.tenutaterrenere.com http://www.antinori.it

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