James Suckling 98 pts, Vinous 97 pts, Wine Spectator 97 pts, Decanter 97 pts, Wine Advocate 96 pts

Solaia is Antinori’s most ambitious and most critically celebrated single wine, produced from the sun-drenched upper section of the Tignanello estate in the Chianti Classico zone from a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon with minor proportions of Cabernet Franc and Sangiovese. Where Tignanello reversed the conventional Tuscan hierarchy by including Cabernet in a Sangiovese-dominant blend, Solaia went further by making Cabernet Sauvignon the unambiguous primary variety, producing a wine of international pedigree and unmistakably Tuscan character in equal measure. James Suckling has awarded perfect scores to Solaia in multiple vintages, and Vinous has described the wine as capable of 100-point perfection when the vintage and the selection deliver what the vineyard is capable of at its best. The 2020 Solaia received 98 points from James Suckling and 97 points from Wine Spectator, placing it among the finest Solaia vintages of the past decade.

The Solaia vineyard occupies 8 hectares of south-facing hillside within the Tignanello estate at elevations between 350 and 400 metres, on soils rich in galestro (shale) and alberese (clay-limestone) that provide the combination of drainage, mineral depth and heat retention that the late-ripening Cabernet Sauvignon varieties require at this Tuscan latitude. The 2020 growing season was warm and concentrated, producing wines of exceptional aromatic richness and tannin authority across Tuscany’s finest estates, and Antinori’s management of the vintage at Solaia, with careful canopy work and selective harvesting, produced a wine that the estate’s winemakers describe as one of the finest in recent years.

Solaia is Antinori’s unambiguous collector wine, the house’s clearest statement of ambition and the Tuscan wine that comes closest to matching the weight, complexity and ageing potential of the world’s finest Cabernet Sauvignon-dominant blends from Bordeaux and California. The 2020, at 98 JS and 97 WS, reinforces that position and provides collectors with a wine of exceptional vintage quality from one of Italy’s most celebrated estates.

Deep ruby-purple with a complex and opulent nose of blackcurrant, blackberry, cedar, tobacco, cigar box, dried Tuscan herbs and the distinctive galestro mineral note of the Tignanello estate hillside. Full-bodied with powerful, well-structured tannins, excellent natural acidity and a very long, mineral, herb-inflected finish of great class and persistence. Best from 2028 through 2050.