Antinori The King of Italian Wines

Interview with Albiera Antinori, President of Antinori

Italy's wine industry has thousands of years of history, making it one of the earliest European countries to develop grape cultivation techniques. In ancient times, Roman soldiers would carry grape seeds with them on campaigns, planting them wherever they conquered. This marked the beginning of viticulture spreading from Italy throughout Europe. Today, Italian wine production accounts for a quarter of the world's total. Due to its numerous wine regions, Italy's wine industry is more complex than France's, with classification systems including DOCG, DOC, and others that require in-depth study to distinguish properly.

When it comes to fine wine, what could be more exciting than enjoying the most authentic glass right at the winery? The Italian wine family Antinori recognized this, investing heavily in a new winery that took five years to build. Now, anyone who enters this Chianti Classico estate in Tuscany is immediately stunned by the sight before them—completed in late 2012, the winery has been constructed as a breathtaking wine experience center, marking a revolutionary milestone for the entire Italian winemaking industry.

Italy's largest wine enterprise, the Antinori family, has a winemaking history in Tuscany dating back to the 13th century, when family member Giovanni di Piero Antinori joined the winemakers' guild known as "Florentine Arts" in Florence, marking the beginning of the family's winemaking business. For nearly a thousand years since then, each generation has personally participated in the winemaking business. The family has produced several popes and high officials who vigorously developed Italy's wine industry, all of which can be seen on the family tree in the winery museum. "The Antinori family's obsession with wine is astonishing," family member Albiera Antinori told me. "We are especially passionate about grape cultivation methods and have conducted continuous, comprehensive research to improve grape quality. Now you can see this winery as one of the crystallizations of our centuries of winemaking technology." The saying that wealth doesn't last beyond three generations is meaningless here. Albiera explained that for nearly a thousand years, the entire family has carried the responsibility of revitalizing the wine industry, with each generation facing different challenges—some dealing with World War II issues, others understanding the internet age. Now the newest generation must learn how to handle the inheritance of the estate. Albiera's father, the president of the estate, is 76 years old and still comes to work at the estate every day.

This is the first winery building that was almost completely localized in its engineering design and construction process, with designers, construction teams, and building materials all sourced from the Tuscany region. The architect responsible for designing the Chianti Classico winery, Marco Casamonti, is from Florence and was not previously famous, but Antinori had the vision to recognize his talent, and the results upon completion were remarkable. The brown floor tiles and walls use Terracotta clay, all from the Tuscan town of Impruneta. The floors, walls, ceilings, and even containers for storing olive oil throughout the winery are made from this clay, featuring very typical Tuscan characteristics. The Corten steel used in the winery is also locally produced, with metal component proportions that have been used historically in the Tuscany region. This steel presents a heavy rust-red color, causing the entire winery to display different colors as the daylight changes. Following the same principle, all glass in the winery also comes from the Tuscany region.

This is a new type of winery open to the public for wine tasting. First, it attempts to express through its architecture the labor, tradition, and cultural qualities inherent in its family products that are closely related to the pastoral landscape and natural environment. The winery is closely integrated with the land, appearing from the outside like a shell buried underground, without roofs, walls, roads, or parking lots, pursuing a "harmony between the natural environment and man-made architecture." Two curves at ground level outline a new ground surface and vineyard, changing the contour of the hill. The extensive use of glass and steel allows sunlight to enter the underground winery and creates a unique landscape. Gardens on each floor are filled with grapevines, making the winery blend into the entire hillside when viewed from a distance. Thus, the building's intent to communicate with the land doesn't become affected, preserving as much as possible the characteristics of traditional underground arched cellars, providing the possibility to ensure the production of the highest quality products.

The entire winery is divided into work areas and visitor areas, with the visitor area including tourist passages, a 200-person auditorium, museum, library, day care center, restaurant, and most importantly, a tasting room. You can walk into the winemaking room to observe the wine production process. The diffused light, wooden barrels, and red brick walls in the winemaking room create a sacred atmosphere. The underground design also has energy-saving advantages: air enters the cellar directly from above-ground vents, creating natural cooling and heating. The constant temperature of the earth provides a stable climate for the cellar. Additionally, the bricks in the walls were made in special shapes for this cellar by technicians from the Fornace Sannini brickyard.

Although most of the wine is produced here, more than 100,000 tourists visit the winery annually. They enter the underground area through a spiral ramp leading to the vineyard roof. The winery has arranged special guides for explanations without affecting production activities. When visiting the Antinori winery, one cannot miss sitting in the iconic tasting room to sample Antinori wines. This transparent tasting room, constructed entirely of glass and steel, is suspended above the winemaking room, with over 5,000 oak barrels beneath your feet, as if you were enveloped in a drop of fragrant wine—it's not the wine that intoxicates, but rather the person who becomes intoxicated by the experience. I had lunch with Albiera in the winery's restaurant, where the menu also follows authentic Tuscan style: bread spread with sun-dried tomato paste, fried bread balls, Tuscan ham, Tuscan T-bone steak, and even the vinegar and olive oil on the table are produced by Antinori. At this moment, with a glass of Antinori red wine, one only regrets that time passes too quickly.

Angelina: What has made the Antinori family engaged in the wine business for generations?

Albiera Antinori: Wine is like our blood, a gene we're born with. I've been working in the vineyard since I was 18. My children are still young, but we try to let them understand what we're doing and participate in the annual winemaking activities. We encourage our children to study and work in different fields, but ultimately, family members return to the family business. Many people ask me the secret to family inheritance; I believe there aren't many secrets: work hard and love what you do.

Angelina: How does Antinori maintain quality in an era of industrialized mass production in the wine industry?

Albiera Antinori: Antinori remains the inheritor and guardian of traditional wine values, adhering to the traditional spirit of wine: respecting each winery's unique terroir, bringing out the characteristics of each grape variety, insisting on craftsmanship as the core, meticulously selecting, with quality above all else. Antinori's dozen or so wineries produce dozens of high-quality wines with different characters, insisting that each wine must have its own distinct personality, and consistently improving excellent quality and taste.

Angelina: How does the new Antinori winery save energy and protect the environment?

Albiera Antinori: Antinori's new winery also emphasizes technology, environmental protection, and low energy consumption. Besides achieving zero-energy requirements through gravity vinification in fermentation and blending processes, the unique design of the cellar also achieves the purpose of minimal energy consumption. Traditional building materials like Terracotta were used during construction. Terracotta is an excellent insulator, allowing the entire cellar's temperature to be naturally controlled to an ideal state. The circular holes in the cellar's roof help hot air naturally dissipate. The ingenious spatial design allows the cellar to rely entirely on natural regulation, achieving constant temperature effects without air conditioning. Additionally, the water we use to irrigate the grapes comes from mountain springs, naturally flowing back into the mountains after irrigation for recycling.

Angelina: Many Italian wineries have been acquired by Chinese buyers. What do you think about this?

Albiera Antinori: I think it's also good to help wineries overcome financial difficulties and beneficial for promoting Italian wine in China. Antinori has established a family fund stipulating that the family cannot be divided or the brand sold for 90 years, so we don't have such considerations.

Angelina: How are Antinori's market sales today?

Albiera Antinori: We have never expanded frantically; for hundreds of years, we've been making wine gradually. Europe and America are our major markets. The Chinese market is a bit complex, but we're not in a hurry. Good wine needs no bush.

Angelina: What are Antinori's signature wines?

Albiera Antinori: SOLAIA and Tignanello.

Originally published in the June 2015 issue of Lifestyle magazine. Written by Angelina Saiyi Li.