The Antinori family has been involved in the production of wine for over six centuries, ever since, in 1385, Giovanni di Piero Antinori entered as a member, the “Arte Fiorentina�, the Winemakers’ Guild of the city of Florence. During this entire long period, thorough twenty six generations, the family has always directly managed this work with courageous and, at times, innovative decisions, but always maintaining, unaltered, a fundamental respect for tradition and for the territory in which they have operated. Today the firm is run by Marquis Piero Antinori with the support of his three daugthers, Albiera, Allegra, and Alessia, directly involved in the work of the house. Tradition, passion, and intuition have been the three driving principles which have led the Marquis Antinori firm to become a leader in Italian wine. Each and every vintage, each and every separate area, each and every idea which is to be put into practice is a new beginning, a new search for higher quality standards. As Marquis Piero Antinori likes to repreat: “ancient roots play an important role in our work. But have never been a limit to our innovative spirit�. The estates in Tuscany and Umbria, the historic patrimony of the family, have been joined, over time, by investments in other territories with an important potential for high level wine both in Italy and abroad, in places where it would be possible to begin working for a larger prestige and wider awareness of the family’s ability to produce outstanding wine. The Marchesi Antinori firm expresses its passion for viticulture by a constant search for even the smallest areas for quality improvement. For this reason, continuous experiments go forward both in the vineyards and in the cellars, seeking new clones of local and international grape varieties, experimenting cultivation techniques, vineyard altitudes, fermentation practices an temperatures, modern and traditional fermentation methods, different types of oak for aging and different sizes and age for the casks and barrels themselves, and different aging times before their commercial release for the bottled wines as well. “We have demonstrated, over the years, that in Tuscany and in Umbria there was the possibility of producing excellent wines, widely recognized at an international level, which showed both class and breed while maintaining their original character. Our library contains many books, but for us it is not rich enough. We have a mission which has not yet been entirely carried out, which drives us to express the vast potential of our vineyards and to reconcile both new discoveries yet to be made and the patrimony of Tuscan taste. A patrimony which includes tradition, culture, agriculture, art, and literature and which represent the identity of the Marchesi Antinori firm, ones of whose major strong points is the fact of being Tuscan or, if you prefer, our fundamentally Tuscan character�, says Piero Antinori.