Marchesi Antinori
Solaia
Toscana IGT
2016

The producer

Tenuta Tignanello is located right in the middle of Chianti Classico, between the valleys of Greve and Pesa. The estate covers around 130 hectares of vineyards, including the land from where grapes for the two signature wines – Tignanello and Solaia – is derived. The soil is rich in marine marlstone with limestone and schist, and Sangiovese along with Cabernet Sauvignon and a bit of Cabernet Franc are thriving in these sun-soaked rolling hills at altitudes around 350-400 metres.

Superstar winemaking consultant Giacomo Tachis consulted for Tenuta Tignanello for many years and Solaia was the first Italian wine to be named the ‘world’s number 1 wine’ by Wine Spectator in 1997. The rest is history.

The wine

Solaia is a 50 acre (20 hectare) vineyard with a southwestern exposure located at an altitude between 1150 and 1325 feet (350-400 meters) above sea level and with a stony soil of “alberese” (hard limestone) and “galestro” (flaky calcareous clay) rock. The vineyard is located at the Tignanello estate. The Antinori family produced this wine for the first time in the year 1978, and the initial blend was 80% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 20% Cabernet Franc, a formula repeated in 1979 as well. In the following years, 20% of Sangiovese was introduced and certain adjustments were also made in the rapport between Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc until the current blend was settled upon. Solaia is produced only in exceptional vintage, and was not produced in 1980, 1981, 1983, 1984, and 1992.

We choose our wines based on a range of criteria (see how we choose our wines) of which critic scores is just one. Rather than simply highlight the best score to promote a wine, our average critic score is calculated from the scores provided by several respected wine critics, who we follow for specific regions. They do not represent all critic scores and, wherever possible, we try and give more weight to more recent reviews. Where appropriate we consider market-based scores like Global Wine Score or Wine Searcher Average scores.

As a rule, we look to offer wines that achieve a 92/100 average critic score or better and frankly a lot of very good wines simply don’t make the cut. As a high-end provider we want to reflect that positioning in the quality of wines we offer. Such wines are only a tiny fraction of those generally on offer in the market. We believe that an average score is a more conservative and representative approach, but it is still subjective and only offered as a guide to our customers, who will (and should) do their own research. We will add individual critic scores to our website in the future.