The noble Antinori family in Tuscany has been dedicated to viticulture for 26 generations of the family since 1385, when Giovanni di Piero Antinori (1363-1417) became a member of the "Arte Fiorentina dei Vinattieri", the Florentine winegrowers' guild. During his lifetime, the rise of the famous noble Medici family in Florence also took place, and he came from a Florentine merchant family with a long winemaking tradition. At that time, the city had been through many wars and several waves of plague. Wine production formed the third pillar of the family's activities, along with the silk trade and the international banking business.

Over the centuries, the connection with wine became the family's most important activity. In 1506, Niccolò di Tommaso Antinori, one of the most promising and influential men in Florence at the time, acquired Palazzo Antinori (known as Palazzo Boni), one of the finest examples of Florentine Renaissance architecture, located just a few steps from the River Arno in Florence's historic city centre. The picture shows the family-owned Palazzo Antinori in Florence (left), the main entrance leading into a courtyard and garden (centre) and a fountain with a statue of Venus in the courtyard garden (right).
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The Wine lexicon helps me to keep up to date and refresh my knowledge. Thank you for this Lexicon that will never end in terms of topicality! That's what makes it so exciting to come back often.
Thorsten Rahn
Restaurantleiter, Sommelier, Weindozent und Autor; Dresden