Tenuta del Nicchio Il Nicchio 2021

“There are only a few places in the world where Cabernet Franc can be utterly profound. Maremma is one of them.” -Antonio Galloni

Tenuta Del Nicchio is the sacred project of legendary winemaker Marchese Lodovico Antonori. He works on this with his beloved daughter, Sophia Antinori and together they make this a special place.

Marchese Lodovico Antinori is an incredibly interesting guy. He pursued cinematography and photojournalism until his 40s when he decided to join the family business. First the Antinori’s sent him to the U.S. to learn his craft. It was there that he befriended Andre Tchelistcheff, the winemaker who perhaps more than anyone helped make Napa Valley what it is today. He told Andre that he wanted to go to Maremma to make wine.

Marchese Lodovico saw the potential for making world-class wines from Bordeaux varieties that he had worked with in France and Napa. Tchelistcheff told Lodovico, “stay here, young man. You have an El Dorado here.” He did, and a short while later, he 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, even caught the eye of a young Michel Rolland, who joined the team years ago and has never left. These wineries became benchmarks of Italian wine excellence, lauded and enjoyed internationally. Behind every single one of them? Marchese Antinori.