Marchesi Antinori, Tignanello 2013

Delicate vineyard work – leaf removal and crop thinning – along with a careful manual selection of the bunches
during harvest operation assured the fermentation of high quality grapes with much varietal personality. During
the fermentation in conical stainless steel tanks, extreme attention was given to an extraction aimed at fresh and
fragrant aromas, full colors, and supple, elegant textures and tannins. Once the wine had been run off its skinsat the
end of the fermentation, it was put through afull malolactic fermentation in oak barrels to fully bring out the finesse
and expressiveness of the aromas. The aging process, which lasted approximately 12-14 months, then began and
took place in 60 gallon French and Hungarian oak barrels, partly new and partly used once previously. The various
lots, fermented separately variety by variety, then finished their aging and were blended together a few months
previous to bottling.

Tignanello is produced exclusively from the vineyard of the same name, a parcel of some 140 acres (57 hectares)
with limestone-rich soils and a southwestern exposure at 1150-1325 feet (350-400 meters) above sea level at the
Tignanello estate. It was the first Sangiovese wine to be aged in small oak barrels, the first modern red wine to use
such non-traditional varieties as Cabernet in the blend, and among the first red wines from the Chianti Classico area
to be produced without white grapes. The wine, originally called "Chianti Classico Riserva Vigneto Tignanello" (a
Chianti Classico Riservaf rom the Tignanello vineyard), was produced for the first time from a single vineyard
parcel in 1970, when the blend contained 20% of Canaiolo and 5% of Trebbiano and Malvasia, both white grapes,
and the wine aged in small oak barrels. In 1971 it became a Tuscan red table wine rather than a Chianti Classico,
and was called Tignanello. In the 1975 vintage the percentage of white grapes was definitively eliminated from the
blend. Ever since 1982, the blend has been the one currently used. Tignanello is bottled only in favorable vintages,
and was not produced in 1972, 1973,1974, 1976, 1984, 1992,and 2002.