Al meer dan 600 jaar maakt de Florentijnse familie Antinori wijn, maar weinig gewone stervelingen kwamen binnen de poorten van het aristocratische wijnhuis. Soms worden wel groepen journalisten en andere wijnprofessionals toegelaten, een enkele keer ook bloggers, zoals mij overkwam in Umbrië vorige maand. We bezochten er de Umbrische vestiging van het huis, Castello della Sala, en dineerden in de eetzaal van het oude kasteel.
Maar sinds enkele weken kan iedereen een kijkje gaan nemen bij dit beroemde wijnhuis, in Toscane, net buiten Florence, waar de meeste toeristen komen. De familie liet een moderne nieuwe kelder bouwen, voegde er een museum, restaurant, auditorium en winkel aan toe, en creëerde zo een nieuwe attractie in de Chianti-regio.
Hieronder het persbericht van het bedrijf. Bereid jezelf wel voor op tamelijk hoogdravend proza.
At Bargino, in fact, just a half an hour by car away from the Renaissance heart of downtown Florence, the new headquarters of the Marchesi Antinori firm and the new Chianti Classico cellars now rise. An extraordinary work of architecture, concealed among the olive groves, the vineyards, the stands of oak and holm oak. A hidden cavern where wine is at the center of all movement, of work, of the reception of guests and visitors. A temple dedicated to wine, but above all a homage to the Tuscan landscape and its vineyards. A landscape which has remained inviolate, rendered indeed even more beautiful by the hand of man as, for centuries, has been the case in the Tuscan countryside.
The Marchesi Antinori firm will transfer the largest part of its offices of the house from the house’s noble palace in pietra forte, the lovely grey stone of the Florentine Renaissance. A palace located in Piazza Antinori in Florence’s very center, purchased by Niccolò Antinori in 1506 for ‘4000 large and heavy florins’. A move – and a revolutionary chapter in the family’s history which has given birth to a labyrinth of arches, vaults, and sinuous volumes, of terraces and of unusual spaces, which thus will become the headquarters of a business which nourishes itself, and has nourished itself for generations, from wine and terroir, from the very soil from which its wines are born.
In the heart of Chianti Classico, the place of origin of the Antinori family, the future of these vintners, whose sole passion, for 26 generations, has been to make great wine, will begin anew. This ‘new palace’, born in the soil, covered with vines, is a synthesis of Italian wine knowhow. Which has its point of force in the family. “The family line in the direction and in the continuous improvement of our vineyards and our cellars is not a sentimental choice, the forced repetition of a certain tradition, but rather the most suitable way, perhaps the only way, over time, to best carry out our chosen tasks”, wrote just a short time ago Piero Antinori in his book Il Profumo del Chianti (“The Perfume of Chianti”).
The cellars
“The finest wines are always born in harmonious landscapes, rich in history and character, whose beauty, in some way, ends up in the glass”. You have to come here to feel the emotions of a sunset which reddens the earth and drenches in a vermillion light the vines which grow in the hillside vineyards.
The gates which lead into the new cellars, almost invisible from the outside, are at the foot of this green mantle, just a few hundred yards from the Via Cassia, the old road which was once a strategic highway between Florence and Siena. Everything is hidden, underground. One discovers piece by piece this extraordinary atelier dedicated to wine, passing curve after curve and finally landing on a terrace which gives onto the countryside. There the two “slashes”, those two lines similar “to a mouth” which welcome visitors to this third-millennium forge whose heart is wine, an integral part of a journey which crosses the barrel-aging cellar, the fermenting cellars, the museum, a library, a Bottega dei Sapori, the restaurant, the auditorium.
The architectural project was born in 2005, created by the Florentine architect, Marco Casamonti, one of the founders of the Archea Associati Studio, who chose natural, Tuscan materials such as the terracotta of nearby Impruneta, the stones, the Corten iron, a lovely rust-colored alloy of steel, copper, nickel, and chrome. But who wanted, above all, an edifice inextricably linked to Nature.
The new Marchesi Antinori cellars are a place full of harmony, light, and balance. Where the desire to make great wine is palpable. As is the desire to present it. For it is only here that it is possible to “see, study, and touch the places where the wine is born and is aged and, as well, the atelier where oak barrels will be coopered and the spaces where the grapes for the Vin Santo are dried and where the wine is then aged in the classic small barrels”.
A place which is open to the world and to what is new. Where lovers of wine and the younger generations can stand on the transparent terraces constructed inside the cellars, terraces where the wines can be tasted along with other Tuscan culinary specialties. Everything is done with transparency and constant circulation in mind: the sinuous lines of the cellar architecture, the suspended bridges just a few meters away from the tanks where the wines ferment. The phase in which the wines are created can be observed just as in a theatrical event, watching cellar workers and the technical staff as they de-stem the grape bunches, move the must into the stainless steel tanks and, from the tanks, to the barrels and casks and, finally, from the oak to the bottle. An intimate and silent drawing room. Where all the phases of the winemaking – from the vineyard to the final tasting – can be glimpsed, understood, and appreciated. The new cellars are the place where the “pleasure of breathing wine” will be discovered. And of understanding the phases of its life cycle: the fermentation and the aging.
This airy edifice is the place where wines such as Villa Antinori, Marchese Antinori Chianti Classico Riserva, Vinsanto del Chianti Classico, Péppoli Chianti Classico, the Laudemio and Pèppoli extra-virgin olive oil.
The structure was conceived in order to allow gravity-flow fermentation and aging, without any use of mechanical pumps: this leads to important energy savings and a functional use of the spaces below the fermenting tanks, more dynamic and efficient working procedures, and a great respect for the wine itself. Gravity-flow fermentation and aging, in fact, is a method which allows the grapes to be worked in a less traumatic way, with results which are already evident in the glass: the wine is more balanced and elegant with smoother, suppler tannins. The process begins at the upper floors, where the grapes arrive from the vineyards and where expert hands select the better bunches: only the finest berries are utilized in order to create the cellar’s great wines. The pressing is carried out with light breaking of the berry skins.
There is a triple selection process: in the vineyard, of the bunches, and of the berries. Maximum attention has been given to the environment: minimal environmental impact and minimal use of energy. The temperatures which are necessary for the barrel-aging of the wines are those of the earth, not of refrigeration units. Just as in the time when the Medici ruled Florence, when snow was stored in north-facing, fresh, and humid spaces, in subterranean spots which took their name from the Italian word for snow, spaces utilized to keep food and beverages fresh even during the summer.
The new Marchesi Antinori cellars were inspired as well by this principle: maintaining an ideal temperature for the production and conservation of wine by absolutely natural methods. Within the cellars themselves, there is a Museum, which presents a part of the historic art collection of the Antinori Palace in Florence along. These will be joined by the site-specific works of international artists of contemporary fame, whose creations will newly map the territory, thus continuing and adding to the family’s collection, one full of history and of artistic tradition, orienting it towards the contemporary. The museum is represented by Chianti, and the places of Chianti are the elements of the museum conceived by the artists to create a true open-air museum. When it is inaugurated, the project – whose curator is Chiara Parisi – will involve Rosa Barba, Yona Friedman, and Jean Baptiste Decavèle who have created, at the site, works with a careful attention to the themes of the landscape, of memory, and of the territory.
There is, in addition, an Auditorium completely lined in oak (an ideal place for meetings, workshops, and conventions where ideas will “fermented”, will be discussed and debated in as lively a way as possible) along with a Library, a Bottega Dei Sapori (a fine food shop), and a Restaurant, where wine and Tuscan food can be sampled.
The cellars are also the firm’s offices and headquarters , while the official legal site and place for major events will remain in Florence, at the Antinori Palace.
Lees meer op de website, inmiddels ook in het Engels Antinori in Chianti
