Our Annual Antinori Sale – 627 years of winemaking excellence

We sell a lot of wines from the famous Tuscan estate of Marchesi Antinori and every year we are fortunate to receive promotional pricing on a number of wines which allows us to offer terrific deals to our customers.

The Antinori family has been making wine for over six hundred years, since Giovanni di Piero Antinori became part of the Arte Fiorentina dei Vinattieri in 1385. Throughout its long history, spanning 26 generations, the family has always personally managed the business making innovative, sometimes courageous choices, always with unwavering respect for tradition and the land.

Today Marchese Piero Antinori is director of the company, assisted by his three daughters, Albiera, Allegra and Alessia, who are personally involved in the business.

The qualities of tradition, passion and instinct have made Antinori one of the leading Italian producers of fine quality wines. Every vintage, every terroir, every idea is a new beginning, a new quest to raise our quality margins. As Marchese Piero loves to repeat: "ancient roots play an important role in our philosophy, but they have never held back our spirit of innovation".

It would seem that the wines have never been better - testimony to the magisterial influence of Italy's leading oenologist, Renzo Cotarella, who has been the Managing Director at Antinori for 29 years. As Wine Advocate Italian critic Antonio Galloni observed - "This is another impressive set of new releases with a number of highlights. Over the years oenologist Renzo Cotarella has moved away from the super-late harvests of the late 1990s/early 2000s in favour of picking slightly earlier, a decision that has paid off handsomely, especially over the last few years. Antinori's 2008s, from a vintage that is quite inconsistent across the board, are superb. I remember spending a few days near the estate's Tignanello and Badia a Passignano estates in mid-August 2008. The days were very hot, but the nights were so cool that a sweater or light jacket was a necessity."

Commenting specifically on the Chianti Classico Riserva 2008 Galloni writes - "My notes for the 2008 Chianti Classico Riserva Marchese Antinori from a blind tasting read "reminds me of Tignanello." Thankfully, I was not too far off!" Not bad for a wine on sale today at less than £15 per bottle at the case rate. The 2008 Villa Antonori Rosso has also received superb reviews in this vintage.

Antinori continually experiment with their vineyards and cellars, with selections of native and international clones, growing methods, vineyard altitudes, fermentation methods and temperatures, traditional and modern vinification techniques, types of wood, size and age of barrels, and various bottle-ageing periods.

Finally don't miss the "baby Cervaro", Bramito del Cervo Chardonnay 2011. It is not well known and rarely reviewed by critics, undeservedly so in our opinion. The grapes come from the same vineyard as the Cervaro and are vinified and aged in the same oak barrels, albeit for 5 months rather than 12 months. The consumer reviews of Bramito on Cellartracker are excellent and at our case rate sale price of less than £12 per btl, the Bramito is a wonderful alternative to £15-£20 white burgundy.

The very special sale price for the Chianti Classico Riserva 2008 is for today and this weekend only at £175 per case 12. The wine will still be on sale next week but at £185 per case 12.