Meet Our Winemaker
Winemaker Alberto Antonini is at the cutting edge of a new internationalism in Italian winemaking, yet he has been entrusted with the reputation of families who began making wine more than six hundred years ago.
After serving as Winemaker for Marchesi de' Frescobaldi and Director of Enology for Marchesi Antinori, Alberto Antonini has become principal winemaker and Technical Director for the 200 small vineyard owners of the Cantine Leonardo da Vinci. Antonini brings with him the understanding of modern science and the sensibilities of the ancient winemaking heritage of the Chianti region. He holds a doctorate degree in Agricultural Studies from the University of Florence, capital of Tuscany's most famous wine region. He also studied the winemaker's art, Enology, in Bordeaux and in California's most prestigious enology program, University California, Davis.
His experience in both winemaking and agriculture match him perfectly to the philosophy of Cantine Leonardo da Vinci, which is that winemaking should be rooted in "territorio," linked to the land on which the grapes are grown, the slant of the sun on Tuscan hillsides, the gravel, the wind, every aspect of the environment. The Cantine has given Antonini the most modern tools in the winery, and the small vineyard where the grapes are nurtured are part of a tradition that dates back before the Renaissance, before Rome, back to the mysterious Etruscan culture of the Bronze Age.
As the man in the middle of ancient and modern Tuscan winemaking, Antonini says, "The vineyard is everything. The right vine in the right place can produce magical results. But it is not magic, only experience, and imagination, and care taken with every detail."
As winemaker for the Cantine Leonardo da Vinci, Antonini encourages the research programs undertaken there which follow his early academic interest in terroir and the art of matching the vine to the land. "With each new year come welcome surprises," Antonini says, knowing that surprise is the soul of science and the object of art.