Wine Spectator: The Piero Antinori Interview With Marvin R. Shanken

Since assuming control of his family’s wine business in 1966, Marchese Piero Antinori has built a vast wine empire, centered on Tuscany in central Italy and spanning the globe to California, Washington state, and Chile.

In half a century, the Tuscan aristocrat and 25th generation of the Antinori family dynasty has converted a wine merchant business to a company controlling more than 7,000 acres of vineyards. Along the way, he was one of a small group to revolutionize the face of Tuscan and Italian wine overall, shifting the focus from quantity to quality. In 2000, Antinori’s Toscana Solaia 1997 became the first Italian wine to earn Wine Spectator’s Wine of the Year honor.

In 1981, Antinori was forced to take on a partner, U.K.–based Whitbread, yet a decade later, shrewdly regained 100% of the company. Thus began a path of vineyard acquisitions that strengthened the Antinori wine business, allowing it to develop into the multinational producer it is today.

Renzo Cotarella, Piero Antinori’s longtime partner and Antinori’s current CEO, has been by the producer’s side for much of the journey, handling operations while Piero attended to the business and commercial aspects. Piero’s three daughters—Albiera, Allegra, and Alessia—all work alongside him in various roles, with the eldest, Albiera, as president.

The Italian wine visionary sat down with Wine Spectator editor and publisher Marvin R. Shanken to chat about 50-plus years of wine history in Tuscany and beyond. 

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