While the Antinori family holds an eminent position in the modern history of wine—particularly with relation to the Super-Tuscan category—its career in wine actually commenced in 1385, when Giovanni di Piero joined the Wine Sellers Guild as an apprentice. This modest and unassuming beginning authored centuries of dynamic and visionary production, realized in the acquisition and development of estates concentrated in Toscana’s finest and most progressive viticultural areas—Montalcino (Pian delle Vigne), Chianti Classico (Tignanello, Badia a Passignano, Pèppoli), and Montepulciano (La Braccesca). The family also pursued substantive expansion outside this region, establishing estates in Umbria (Castello della Sala), Piemonte (Prunotto), Puglia (Tormaresca), Hungary (Bataapati), Chile (Albis and Albaclara), Washington (Col Solare), and California (Atlas Peak), among many others.

While it may be difficult to fully capture and articulate the significance of such an extensive catalogue, Piero Antinori honored the founding estate’s 600th anniversary in 1985 with the release of a limited-selection bottling named Secentenario, a blend comprising the highest quality lots from the best vintages in Tignanello’s career (some, in fact, regard it as a Super-Tignanello, as it reflects the normale bottling’s varietal breakdown). This multivintage composition enables it to effectually project the philosophy of a house Champagne—a style that is intended to deliver the hallmark signature of an individual producer. Unlike this standard release, however, the Secentenario was a one-time-only bottling. What little remains of this historic and singular effort—presented exclusively in magnum form—is as singular as Secentenario itself.