Two bottles of the debut Tignanello 1971 vintage sourced directly from the Tuscany-based estate each sold above their high estimates at a Christie’s auction in London on Tuesday 26 November.
One fetched £813 and the other £750, including buyer’s premium, versus a pre-sale estimate range of £300 to £500 per bottle.
Christie’s hosted the sale to mark 50 years since Italian winemaking family Antinori first released Tignanello.
A decision to create a Sangiovese-led wine with small amounts of classic ‘Bordeaux’ grape varieties, outside of the Chianti Classico denomination, means Tignanello is considered a pioneer of the SuperTuscan phenomenon.
Christie’s offered nearly every Tignanello vintage at auction this week. Single bottles of Tignanello 1978 and 1979 also sold for £813 each, including buyer’s premium, outpacing a high estimate of £300 per bottle.
‘The saleroom was buzzing with many bidders competing for a piece of vinous history of this world-famous Italian super-Tuscan,’ said Tim Triptree MW, international director for Christie’s wines & spirits department. All lots sold, he said.
Other highlights included:
- Nine magnums of Tignanello 2000 – 2009 sold for £5,250 (high estimate: £4,000). There is no Tignanello 2002 vintage.
- Three double magnums (3x300cl) of Tignanello 1999 – 2001 sold for £5,000 (high e: £2,800).
- A 225-litre barrel of Tignanello 2024, scheduled for release in 2027, sold for £47,000 (e: £24,000 to £50,000).
A lot featuring the current-release Tignanello 2021 vintage, including a 12-litre bottle and overnight trip to the estate via private jet, also sold for £21,250 (estimate: £10,000 to £30,000). Final sale prices include the buyer’s premium.
Marchese Piero Antinori told Decanter, ‘This auction was dedicated to the wine that I’m probably most attached to, Tignanello, on the occasion of its 50th anniversary.’
He said he was pleased with the auction results and described Tignanello 1971 as ‘a milestone in Tuscan winemaking and one of the sparks that contributed to the movement known as “The Renaissance” of Italian wine’.
Renzo Cotarella, CEO and chief winemaker at Marchesi Antinori, commented in the auction notes on Tignanello’s evolution.
This included replanting the vineyard in the 1990s, and a ‘stylistic revision’ of the wine in the 2000s; ‘moving from dimension and power, typical of the early 2000s, to a more refined, intense and savoury style’.
A small group of top SuperTuscans have seen strong price increases on the fine wine secondary market in recent years, suggesting increased collector interest in these wines, as reported by Decanter magazine’s Market Watch.
Prices have dipped in the past 24 months during a wider fine wine market downturn, but remained at historically high levels.
Christie’s also offered medal-winning bottles from the Decanter World Wine Awards this week, in a charity sale.
It’s a busy wine auction season in general. Christie’s is currently offering the ‘Skigaarden’ single-owner collection from a mountainside cellar in Norway, as well as a sale featuring rare Cognac and vintage Port; ending 5 and 6 December respectively.
Meanwhile, Sotheby’s will offer the final instalment of its Epicurean’s Atlas series in Hong Kong on 30 November, featuring wines from collector Pierre Chen.
