2021 Tignanello, Tenuta Antinori, Tuscany, Italy - Matthew Jukes, fine wine direct, fine wine, fine wines

2021 Tignanello, Tenuta Antinori, Tuscany, Italy - Matthew Jukes

2021 Tignanello, Tenuta Antinori, Tuscany, Italy (£189.95, www.finewinedirect.co.uk).

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I have drunk Tignanello more times than I can remember, but in the last few years, I have somewhat lost touch with this wine as it has skyrocketed in fame and price and doesn’t tread the boards in the UK quite like it used to. It seems like only yesterday, Tig, as we used to call it, was a twenty- or thirty-pound wine. I am aware that a couple of celebrities have helped it on its way to today’s nosebleed price, but bearing in mind oceans of the world’s big reds trouble the £200 mark, perhaps this is the new norm. My only issue is that the preceding two wines represent utterly awesome value for money. Tignanello’s price has a stardust and fame quotient that takes its admittedly delicious flavour into a price zone few can afford.

2021 marks Tignanello’s fiftieth birthday; it was first launched in 1971, although it was not released in seven lesser vintages within this half-century. This is a very exuberant and modern Tuscan red wine made from Sangiovese, with around 20% of Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc making up the numbers. It is a style that unites lovers of intensely black-fruit-driven and charry-oak-imbued wines. If you are already a Tignanello fan, you will fall at this vintage’s feet because it is incredibly forward and astoundingly well-balanced. If you are new to Super-Tuscans, you will need a run-up because the flavour is as intense and it is immense, but it still manages to retain freshness and a sense of minerality which, in itself, is remarkable given its fruit weight. I have to hand it to Tignanello because it manages to keep one foot in the past with its indelible Tuscan flair and sense of place while embracing the vibrancy and muscularity of many wines that appeal to the hundred-point brigade. I very much enjoyed tasting this wine. Yet I would love to see it in twenty years when its glossiness and theatricality will have faded, and its vineyard characteristics will undoubtedly shine through. 19+/20

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