Tignanello

The Marchesi Antinori 2017 Tignanello was made with Sangiovese and smaller parts Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. This is a wine for laying down, but with double decanting is also showing beautifully now.

This is a dark, exuberant and inviting wine. Profound intensity and a wonderful openness to the aromas. A symphony of dark fruit emerges, with black cherry, plum, spice and sweet tobacco. A faint yet attractive hint of medicinal or menthol herb also arises, common to Sangiovese of this quality.

The heat and dryness of the 2017 vintage has added to the aromatic intensity of the wine (yields were reduced by a third), but the mouthfeel is carefully crafted to maintain its softness and smoothness, with tannins already well-integrated. Fermented in oak tanks and aged for around 16 months in a combination of French and some Hungarian oak, both new and neutral.

The fruit comes from a 57-hectare section of the Tenuta Tignanello from a vineyard that is located 390 meters above sea level with a bedrock of Alberese limestone rock and soils of marine origin. 

96/100 The Wine Advocate

96/100 James Suckling