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 in the area 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 Viticulture (from the Latin word for '' vine'') or winegrowing (wine growing) is the cultivation and harvesting of grapes. It is a branch of the science of horticulture. While the native territory of '' Vitis vinifera'', the common grape vine, ...

Background

Tignanello has won international awards and has been included several times in the international top ten of the magazine ''

Wine Spectator ''Wine Spectator'' is an American lifestyle magazine that focuses on wine and wine culture, and gives out ratings to certain types of wine. It publishes 15 issues per year with content that includes news, articles, profiles, and general entertain ...

''. 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 A Chianti wine (, also , ) is any wine produced in the Chianti region of central Tuscany. It was historically associated with a squat bottle enclosed in a straw basket, called a ''fiasco'' ("flask"; ''pl. fiaschi''). However, the ''fiasco'' is ...

DOCG wines The following four classification of wine, classifications of wine constitute the Italy, Italian system of labelling and legally protecting Italian wine: * ''Denominazione di origine'' (DO, rarely used; ; English language, English: “designatio ...

as established by

Bettino Ricasoli Bettino Ricasoli, 1st Count of Brolio, 2nd Baron Ricasoli (; 9 March 180923 October 1880) was an Italian statesman. He was a central figure in the politics of Italy during and after the unification of Italy. He led the Moderate Party. Biography ...

. For this reason it lost the name DOC and remained the only generic indication of

table wine Table wine (rarely abbreviated TW) is a wine term with two different meanings: a style of wine and a quality level within wine classification. In the United States, the term primarily designates a wine style: an ordinary wine which is not fortifi ...

until 1994 when it could boast of the

Indicazione Geografica Tipica ''Indicazione geografica tipica'' () is the third of four classifications of wine recognized by the government of Italy. Created to recognize the unusually high quality of the class of wines known as Super Tuscans, IGT wines are labeled with th ...

. After the first experiment in 1975, the white grape was completely removed. Now the composition is 80%

Sangiovese Sangiovese (, also , , ) is a red Italian wine grape variety that derives its name from the Latin ''sanguis Jovis'', "the blood of Jupiter". Though it is the grape of most of central Italy from Romagna down to Lazio (the most widespread grape ...

, 15% Cabernet Sauvignon and 5% Cabernet Franc and the gradation of 13.50%. This relationship between the grapes has been so since 1995 with the exception of the period 2001-2006 in which the Sangiovese rose to 85% at the expense of Cabernet Sauvignon which was decreased to 10%. In practice it was, together with

Sassicaia Tenuta San Guido is an Italian wine producer in the DOC Bolgheri in Toscana, known as a producer of "Super Tuscan" wine. It produces Sassicaia, a Bordeaux-style red wine. The estate also produces a second wine, Guidalberto, and a third wine, Le ...

, the precursor of Super Tuscan wines that have managed to obtain numerous awards all over the world.

Cultural references

*Tignanello wine inspired the naming of the lifestyle blog ("The Tig") that was run by Meghan, Duchess of Sussex (before her royal marriage) from 2014-2016. "5 Things Meghan Markle Will Love About London.." The Free Library. 2018 Newsweek Media Group 06 Mar. 2019 https://www.thefreelibrary.com/5+Things+Meghan+Markle+Will+Love+About+London.-a0521634957 *The name could derive from the

Etruscan __NOTOC__ Etruscan may refer to: Ancient civilization *The Etruscan language, an extinct language in ancient Italy *Something derived from or related to the Etruscan civilization **Etruscan architecture **Etruscan art **Etruscan cities ** Etrusca ...

divinity

Tinia In Etruscan religion and mythology, Tinia (also Tin, Tinh, Tins or ''Tina'') was the god of the sky and the highest god in Etruscan mythology, equivalent to the Roman Jupiter and the Greek Zeus. However, a primary source from the Roman Varr ...

, the equivalent of

Zeus Zeus or , , ; grc, Δῐός, ''Diós'', label= genitive Boeotian Aeolic and Laconian grc-dor, Δεύς, Deús ; grc, Δέος, ''Déos'', label= genitive el, Δίας, ''Días'' () is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek reli ...

References

Italian wines San Casciano in Val di Pesa