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).
Foundation of the current company
The two brothers Piero Antinori (1875-1932) and Ludovico Antinori (1879-1948), together with their brother-in-law Guglielmo Guerrini, founded the current company "Marchesi Antinori" in 1898, originally under the name "Marchesi L&P Antinori", with the aim of "bringing some order to the various wine-growing activities that had been built up by previous generations of Antinori since the 14th century". During a trip to Champagne in 1905, Lucien Charlemagne (one of the Chefs de Caves) was hired to produce the house's first sparkling wine according to the méthode traditionnelle. The next milestone was the Chianti "Villa Antinori" in 1928, which was vinified in a long-lasting style that was new in Tuscany at the time.
Marchese Piero Antinori
Niccolò Antinori (1896-1972) laid the foundations for the highest quality with Chianti Classico and expanded the estate into Umbria with the purchase of Castello della Sala. In 1966, his son Marchese Piero Antinori (*1938) took over the management. He is regarded as a leading figure and pioneer of the oenological revolution in Italy, also in connection with the Super Tuscans, which significantly influenced the quality of Italian wines. Among many other innovations, he was one of the first to experiment with barrique ageing. In 1961, he engaged the oenologist Giacomo Tachis (1933-2016), who...
