Alberto Antonini

The Climb

Born in 1959, Alberto Antonini was shaped first in the working vineyards of Poggiotondo in Chianti, Tuscany, where his first vintage dates to 1980. The early work was manual and practical: vineyard labour, cellar support, and the discipline of making wine inside a family operation. That background sits behind a clear position he has carried through his career: great wine starts in the soil. As Antonini puts it, “The making of a great wine happens 80% in the soil.” Formal study came next, with training at University of Florence, Université de Bordeaux, and University of California, Davis. From there, the career moved through established estates in sequence: assistant winemaker at Frescobaldi Winery, technical director at Col D’Orcia Winery in Montalcino, and head winemaker at Antinori Winery. The thread across those posts is technical range, vineyard attention, and the ability to work across different estate structures without losing the same core focus. In 1995, Alberto Antonini extended that approach beyond Italy as partner and winemaker at Altos Las Hormigas in Mendoza. The move connected Chianti training to an Argentine context and widened the frame of his work without changing its centre: vineyard expression first, cellar decisions second.

Today

Since 2013, Alberto Antonini has been a Wine Consultant and winemaker at Dievole in Castelnuovo Berardenga, Italy. The role fits a method already visible across his career: close reading of site, steady vineyard oversight, and a working belief that wine is made long before it is bottled. At Dievole, that vineyard-first position has a clear setting, and the work continues within a framework defined by place rather than effect.

Signature

Alberto's signature wines include Girolamo, Malbec Uco Valley Reserva, Mendoza Malbec, Vista Flores, and Bertolino Soprano 2017. The range shows the span of his work between Italy and Argentina, and the way those wines are presented through origin, structure, and restraint rather than ornament.

In Their Words “My dream is that one day we won't talk about Malbec first, when we talk about Argentina. Instead, we'll talk about Vista Flores or Luján. We'll talk about where the wine is from, before we talk about Malbec.” “The making of a great wine happens 80% in the soil.”