Ayoung FBC, a comprehensive liquor company, announced on the 13th that it has completed a tasting event for the "Antinori," the oldest winery in the world. Antinori is an Italian winery that has been family-owned for 640 years. It has maintained a partnership with Ayoung FBC for 20 years. Antinori's signature wine, "Tignanello," is well-known in Korea as the "Lee Kun-hee wine." It is known to be a wine presented to executives of major affiliates by the late Lee Kun-hee, former chairman of Samsung Group, during the Chuseok holiday in 2004.
According to Ayoung FBC on that day, the tasting event held the previous day at "Mood Seoul" in Banpo, Seoul, focused on Antinori's representative lineup and brand philosophy. Following the media tasting, a tasting event for industry stakeholders and consumers took place. Tickets for consumers were sold in two categories: "First Class" (129,000 won) and "Business Class" (49,000 won). Ayoung FBC reported that the 120 tickets for First Class were sold out early.
Antinori was established in 1385 in the Florence region of Italy. The wine production history of the Antinori family dates back to 1180, but they consider 1385, the year they officially joined the Florence Wine Guild, as the founding year of their wine production. They have maintained a family-owned legacy without interruption for over 640 years. The winery is led by Piero Antinori, the 25th generation of the Antinori family, and his three daughters, Albiera, Allegra, and Alessia, and it has been listed in the Guinness Book as the oldest wine family in the world.
Tignanello, which Antinori first introduced in 1975, is considered the pioneer of "Super Tuscan" wines that elevated Italian wine to a premium status. Super Tuscan refers to wines made using innovative winemaking methods close to disruptive innovation in the central Italian region of Tuscany. Tignanello was a new concept wine that cultivated the international variety Cabernet Sauvignon in the traditional Chianti Classico wine region of Tuscany and blended it with the native variety Sangiovese. It essentially uprooted centuries-old grape cultivation practices and local traditional varieties. Antinori's attempt overturned the prevailing notion of Italy as a "country producing low-cost wines in bulk."
In 2000, Antinori's "Solaia" became the first Italian wine ever to be ranked No. 1 in Wine Spectator's list of the top 100 wines in the world, showcasing the outstanding quality of Italian wine to the world.
Antinori has been steadily expanding its portfolio by acquiring wineries across Italy, including its home region of Tuscany, Piedmont, and Umbria. In particular, it has attracted attention in recent years for acquiring prominent wineries in the global wine industry.
In 2021, Antinori became the majority shareholder of the renowned white wine estate "Jermann" in the northeastern Friuli region of Italy, which was founded in 1881 and is a family-run winery known for its varieties like Ribolla Gialla, Sauvignon Blanc, and Piccolo. This acquisition marked a significant step for Antinori to expand its portfolio centered around red wines and embrace top-quality white wines.
Antinori acquired a 15% equity stake in the American Stags Leap Wine Cellars, known for its top wine in the "Judgment of Paris," in 2007, and in 2023 acquired the remaining equity, becoming the sole owner. This solidified Antinori's presence in Napa Valley. Recently, they acquired Arcadia Vineyard in Coombsville, Napa Valley. This vineyard had been kept by Warren Winiarski, the founder of Stags Leap, since he sold his stake in Stags Leap in 2007.
After Winiarski passed away in June of last year, Antinori purchased the vineyard from Winiarski's family last February. By integrating Stags Leap and Arcadia Vineyard under Antinori's ownership, they completed a premium grape supply chain within Napa Valley. Antinori noted at the time of the vineyard acquisition, "We are one step closer to our goal of making 100% of the wines from Stags Leap from estate-grown grapes."
Antinori has also acquired "Haras de Pirque" in Chile in 2017 and "Tuzko" in Hungary in 2002. The recent tasting event was reportedly a showcase of various premium wines from Italy, the United States, Chile, and Hungary produced by Antinori. Over 80 types of wines were introduced, including Tignanello, Solaia, Chevralo, Viserno, Jermann Vintage Tunina, Stags Leap CASK 23 Cabernet Sauvignon, and Stags Leap S.L.V. Cabernet Sauvignon.
Stags Leap has been exclusively imported by Ayoung FBC in Korea since last month, and Jermann is also expected to officially launch this month. An official from Ayoung FBC stated, "Antinori holds such a diverse wine portfolio that it can plan a large tasting event around just one brand," adding, "This tasting event was a meaningful opportunity to directly convey the quality and global stature of Antinori wines to domestic media and consumers."