Wine Legends_ The First Super Tuscan Wine - (How Good is Tignanello_).

Hello, bonjour, buongiorno, and welcome to a new Bon Appetit wine video, where we learn about wine, together, weekly, brought to you by the best wine club in America, yes it is. Today, we're tasting the iconic Italian Super Tuscan wine, called Tignanello, the original Super Tuscan made by famous Tuscan producer, Antti Norri, and we're finding out how good this wine is. It's about $150 a bottle in the US. Is it worth it? Let's find out... Tignanello is an iconic Italian red wine produced by the Antti Norri family in Tuscany, arguably the most famous Italian producer, at least Tuscan producer. Widely recognized as the pioneer of the Super Tuscan movement, launched in 1971, with the 1971 vintage that was released in 1974. It was revolutionary for its time. Historically, Tignanello broke from traditional Chianti Classico regulations, and of course, I want to taste this wine with you, and give you my tasting notes, impressions, and a rating for this wine. But first, we need to give you a bit of background. If you've clicked on this video, you've probably heard about Tignanello before, and wondering how good it is. But let me give you, very briefly, a bit of an overview of the history, and how significant historically this wine is. First, being the first Sangiovese to be aged in small oak barrels, or barriques, how they call them locally, made from French oak. Before, they used larger oak vessels. Secondly, incorporating untraditional international grape varieties like Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc into the blend. And thirdly, eliminating white grapes, which were traditionally required in Chianti Classico blends, into the composition. No white grapes whatsoever here, because white grapes are going to dilute a little bit, especially the tannins. Now, the wine is primarily made from Sangiovese, about 80%, blended with Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc, typically 15% Cap Sauv, 5% Cap Franc. It is sourced exclusively from the Tignanello vineyard of the Antinori estate. There is an estate called Tignanello, this wine is sourced from, and is made from. It's known for limestone-rich soils and south-western exposure. Tignanello is highly acclaimed for its quality and ageing potential, it typically offers quite a complex aromatic profile, a decent quality of tannins, but we'll find out about this in just a minute. Finally, as a Super Tuscan, Tignanello initially bypassed official Italian wine classifications, being labelled as a simple table wine, Vino da Tavola, as they say in Italian, due to its innovative blend. However, its immense quality and popularity led to its status as a cult wine, and significantly influenced the evolution of Italian winemaking, eventually contributing to the creation of the Indicazione Geografica Tipica from Toscana, the wines of protected geographical indication Tuscany. If you want to learn more about Super Tuscan wines, I made a very complete video explaining it all, it's right here. You can watch it next. But for now, let's get tasting. And first of all, we do have a very dark, deep color here. This is vintage 2021, and we see a little bit of evolution. It's only 4 years old, but yes, there are some orange hues to the rim, indicating that this wine has evolved already. There is a bit of noticeable maturation, evolution, at least in the appearance. Let's smell. And it does smell really good. I'm enjoying how it smells like coffee, and caramel, and dark chocolate. It smells quite sweet as well. I'm getting quite a lot of prune, a bit of sweet caramelly prune, and plum, and cherry liquor, also mixed berry jelly. It smells quite rich, and fruity, and dark, and spicy, and toasted, and roasted. And yes, it is quite complex. I'm getting quite a lot of different spices, quite a lot of different berries, the black currant from the Cabernet Sauvignon, also a lot of dark cherries. So yeah, quite a lot of different notes, loads of complexity, aromatic complexity to the nose. Let's taste. Yeah, yeah, very, very interesting, and very, very powerful, lots of finesse. Yes, this is a very, very characterful wine. It's got tons and tons of different qualities to it. First of all, I love how smooth the wine is. The tendons are soft, and smooth, and mellow, and silky, and velvety. So that's really, really pleasant. Loads of concentration of flavor, intensity, really, really big, very rich, really ripe berries, ripe plum, ripe prune. The caramel, all the spices are quite complex as well. It's generous, it's warm. You can feel the alcohol, yes, it's at 14.5. So it is generous, it's big, it's powerful, it's very long as well. And I love how there is quite a lot of acidity, and that's probably the elevation from being in Clantic Classico, also the limestone that tend to maintain freshness and acidity. So really ripe, and generous, and powerful wine, but still this acidity shines through and preserves a lot of freshness. So overall, we're getting a wine with really tons of intensity, very different facets, lots of generosity from the caramel, the coffee, the toasted cocoa, all the generous ripe fruit, but also some freshness, and finesse, and complexity, lots of length as well. So very, very complex wine. This to me is a 92 out of 100 points. And is it worth it? Then, at $150 a bottle, I love the impact that this wine has, especially the freshness, Would you rather spend $150 in a different type of wine? I think with a Bordeaux wine, you would get maybe more finesse, a bigger wine, even smoother tannins. You may not get as much vibrancy and freshness in the acidity from Bordeaux, but I think overall you'd get much longer aging potential, and much more finesse and refinement in the quality of the tannins. If you look at wines from Napa Valley, for example, at $150 you're going to start having a really, really serious wine, but those wines will probably be way bigger, way stronger, way more powerful in the Napa Valley. Maybe you wouldn't get the freshness, the vibrancy, the Italian food-friendliness as well from the acidity and the Sangiovese that is quite typical. So, all in all, yes, I think it is worth $150 because you're getting this really slightly bitter food-friendliness, acidic vibrancy of Sangiovese that is quite unique in the world of wine, even though this is not the most Italian or Tuscan, traditional Tuscan wine being a Super Tuscan, it's made in an international style. If you like an international style but with a bit of an Italian touch to it, Italian vibrancy food-friendliness, well, this is exactly what Tignanello is, a really good example of a Super Tuscan wine, but not the most obvious value for money, I wouldn't think, but it's just my opinion, but I still enjoy Tignanello quite a lot. What do you think? Have you ever had Tignanello? Let me know in the comments and I will see you soon with more fantastic tasting videos and reviews. I'll see you soon in the wonderful world of wine. Cheers!