Tasting Tignanello 1990 - 2020 (Selected vintages)

A small group of Orlando-area wine enthusiasts have been holding monthly in-depth tastings of specific wines in order to improve our understanding of the producer, variety, and wine characteristics. Our most recent tasting was held at Enzo's on the Lake and covered selected vintages of Antinori's Tignanello. The three charts following provide background information on (i) the genesis of the wine, (ii) the vineyard, and (iii) production characteristics. The winemaker was covered in great detail under separate cover.

The wines were tasted in three flights organized as follows:

• Late Teens and 2020: 2016, 2018 2019, 2020
• 2000s and Early Teens: 2008, 2012, 2014
• 1990s: 1990, 1997, 1998, 1999.

The tasting Team is pictured below. 

Tasting Team. From left to right: Ron Siegel, author, 
Bev Siegel, Al Archibald, Sean Charles Hall, Richard
Cohen, Fred Wittenstein, Laurie Levin, Matthew Martin,
Caryn Reiker

The specific tasting notes were recorded by Ron Siegel while overall impressions were provided by a subset of the attendees.

Late Teens and 2020

The 2020 was fat, rich, and mostly primary. Still youthful red fruit. Nice spice. The 2019 had more structure and detail. Lighter in weight than the 2020. Ron liked this wine. 

The 2018 exhibited spice and underbrush on the nose. Reminded him of the 2020 in style: big, rich, with lots of fruit and spice. Still youthful and primary. The 2016 has so much material. It is structured for the long term. Sweet red fruit with an acid spine.

2000s and Early Teens

The 2014 was lighter in style with not as much fruit. More linear in style. The 2012 was lighter in style and weight while the 2008 was a younger 2016. Great wine with lots of structure. I would buy this.

1990s

The 1990 was more advanced than Ron liked while the 1997 showed nice fruit and spice along with leather, tobacco, and florality.

The 1998 showed beautiful fruit and spice and was a far more complete wine. Balanced. His favorite wine so far and very much the wine of the nite. The 1999 lagged a little behind the 1998 and 1997. It showed classic red cherry, leather, spice, underbrush, and tobacco.

Post-tasting thoughts of selected participants

Fred thought that the wines were great and all showed well. He felt that the 1990 was fading a little but, conversely, the 1998 was stellar.

Sean felt that Tignanello is very much a food wine in that the wines got even better when the food came out. He agreed with the group on the eminence of the 2016 but did not feel that the 2019 garnered enough attention. According to Sean, "It was young but very much sour cherries, smoke (or tobacco) and mushroom with a spiciness on the nose. Long finish." The 2019 surprised him the most. The standouts were, he felt, the 2019, 2016, 2014, 2012, and 1998. "The 2014 was drank with the pasta course which, I think, upped its quality. Good tannins and nice acidity, so the best of both worlds, and went well with that pasta and red sauce. I wsa surprised at how well the wine drank young as well as old, although that 1990 was perhaps near its end, or past, but the 1998 was still alive and well. Very smooth tannins in the 1998."

Al was" excited to taste a well-balanced and delightful wine." The later vintages, he felt, showed amazingly well with the fruit and acidity levels balancing each other perfectly. His favorite vintages were the 1998, 2008, and 2016.

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All in all a stellar tasting that was enjoyed broadly. The consensus best wines were the 1998, 2008, and 2016 and the one least appreciated was the 1990.

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