Solaia 2021

The wine in this vintage

An April frost reduced quantities, then a warm, dry summer with marked temperature swings in September produced small, concentrated berries with precise aromatics: for many critics 2021 is one of the great recent Tuscan vintages. Solaia 2021 is an exemplary demonstration. The nose is deep and layered, with cassis, blackberry, dark flowers, graphite and fine spice, while the palate shows remarkable intensity balanced by freshness and very dense, silky tannins. Antonio Galloni awarded it a perfect 100 points. Young and still building, it is a wine that will amply reward patience.

The producer · Antinori

The Antinori family has been making wine in Tuscany since 1385, when Giovanni di Piero Antinori joined the Florentine guild of vintners. Over more than twenty-six generations, a Florentine merchant house has become one of the most influential wine families in the world, today led by Marchese Piero Antinori and his daughters Albiera, Allegra and Alessia. Its symbolic heart is the Tignanello estate in Chianti Classico, between the Greve and Pesa valleys, where south-west-facing slopes of galestro and alberese soils sit at roughly 350 to 400 metres. Two wines that reshaped Italian winemaking come from here. Tignanello, first made in 1971, was among the earliest Tuscan reds to pair Sangiovese with Bordeaux varieties and to be aged in small French barrels, effectively launching the Super Tuscan era. Solaia, first released with the 1978 vintage from the neighbouring vineyard of the same name, is a Cabernet Sauvignon-led red of remarkable depth and longevity. Both express the house style: precision, elegance and a clear sense of place, backed by relentless research in vineyard and cellar.

Critics' scores

• 100 Antonio Galloni

Technical details

Producer

Antinori

Region

Toscana

Country

Italia

Type

Rosso

Vintage

2021

When to drink

Hold, still evolving

Critics' average

100/100

Sizes

75 cl, Magnum 150 cl, Case of 6 × 75 cl

eWibe code

0020121