Tenuta del Nicchio is latest venture of the legendary Marchese Lodovico Antinori, together with his daughter, Sophia Antinori.  The Antinori are literally Tuscan royalty, and they can trace their involvement in producing wine back twenty six generations, to at least the year 1385.  They have had a profound impact on Italian wine--what it is and can be, and how it is perceived and received around the world.

The Marquis Lodovico is possessed of a restless, artistic, and entreuprenurial spirit.  He has often carved his own path, sometimes parallel to that of the family, sometimes taking a more winding road.   First pursuing cinematography and photojournalism, he did not officially join the family business until he was in his forties.   His first assignment in the mid-1970s was a year's-long stint in the United States, traveling all around the country and working with Antinori's burgeoning distrbutors.  This lead him to Napa Valley, where he was deeply impressed with its can-do energy, unburduned by centuries of tradition.   There he met and befriended André Tchelistcheff, the winemaker who perhaps more than anyone helped shape West Coast winemaking.  Tchelistcheff, verging on retirement and keen to spend more time in Europe, began to mentor Lodovico.  Lodovico was interested in developing a project in the Maremma, where his mother's family had been major landowners for a thousand years.   With its complex geology and coastal influence, as well as being one of the few places in Tuscany where Sangiovese did not excel, Marchese Lodovico saw the potential for making world-class wines from Bordeaux varieties.  Tchelistcheff told Lodovico, "stay here, young man. You have an El Dorado here."  Lodovico founded Ornellaia (first vintage 1985) and shortly thereafter Masseto (a pure Merlot planted on a parcel of unique blue clays).  The emergence of Masseto, with Pomerol and in particular Petrus as its guiding light, brought a young Michel Rolland into the fold, a collaboration that continues to this day.   These wineries became benchmarks of Italian wine excellence, lauded and enjoyed internationally.  And yet, in a tale for another time, Marchese Lodovico Antinori, ever the iconoclast, sold Ornellaia and Masseto in 2001.

Tenuta del Nicchio, founded in 2018, is a desire to get back to something more on a human scale, something that Lodovico felt he and Sophia could manage together and keep small.  In fact, he insists that Sophia keep it small so that she can maintain control of all aspects, and even made her sign a father-daughter pact on the matter!   It is a culmination of decades of experience in these lands, drawing from twelve hectares of vineyards in four distinct townships of the Upper Maremma: Bolgheri, Bibbona, Castagneto Carducci, and Sassetta.  The vineyards are isolated, surrounded by woods, and were presciently planted facing north.   They range from one to three hectares in size. 

The focus is Cabernet Franc, which has emerged as the most important and expressive variety of this area.  It's also the most capricious, which the Marchese points out will keep it interesting to only a few specialists, only the most maniacal viticulturists and winemakers looking to do something great.  The first vintage of the flagship Il Nicchio was 2020, sold to only two US retailers.  The gorgeous 2021 is its first full-scale debut.  Tenuta del Nicchio is inspired by a new idea of elegance: lighter, less alcoholic, modern wines, in tune with current tastes, but faithful to a tradition of excellence, never losing sight of the centrality of the raw materials.