If Tachis is considered to be the father of modern Italian winemaking it is because his ideas contributed to triggering an authentic productive revolution which led to a winemaking renaissance in Italy.
Talking about Giacomo Tachis is very difficult from a point of view of both memory and emotions. He was simply the greatest Italian enologist and one of the most influential Italians on the subject on an international level.
There was, in fact, a before and an after Tachis in the world of Italian winemaking. The first centered on dealing with defects, producing wines made with grapes of questionable quality drinkable and pleasing. Wines for which growers favored quantity over quality and used elementary methods that were often insufficient. It should be remembered that in the 30-year periods between 1930 and 1960, the use of high-yield varietals to increase per vine yield to a maximum was widespread in Italy. And then this was topped off by winemaking methods that were more chemical than physical.
Then in 1963, the DOC regulations were adopted and that same year a young enologist from Piedmont but of Sardinian origin, just 30 years old, joined the staff at Marchesi Antinori. The estate was at the time run by Niccolò Antinori but his son Piero, 25, had already begun to be involved in production. The encounter between the two young men, Giacomo Tachis, the enologist from Piedmont, and Piero Antinori, was electric and initiated what would later be called the Tuscan Wine Renaissance.
A few years later the Tignanello project began. Tachis had been sent to Bordeaux to advance his studies, in the court of Emile Peynaud, where he learned a lot about the new direction in winemaking which had begun there some time before. Maceration, the importance of malolactic fermentation, the use of smaller barrels and using new varietals, like Cabernet Sauvignon, all became second nature to Giacomo Tachis.
Tuscany offered everything necessary to produce a great, modern red, one inspired by neo-Bordeaux winemaking methods. And Tignanello thus became the first Italian wine to be produced based on a precise winegrowing, winemaking and marketing project. It was first produced as a Chianti Classico Riserva del Podere Tignanello with the grapes from the 1970 harvest. It then became Tignanello Vino da Tavola (Table Wine) in 1971 and made using only Sangiovese. The Cabernet Sauvignon version made its debut with vintage 1975.
At the same time, Mario Incisa della Rocchetta, Niccolò Antinori’s cousin, had begun to produce a wine at his estate in Bolgheri, the Sassicaia farm. Niccolò offered to distribute that wine through the Antinori organization but insisted that Tachis serve as the winery’s enologist. The result was the birth of Sassicaia. The first version that came out was, in Tachis’ words, put together by blending wines from 1965, ’66, ’67, ’68 and ’69, for a total of at least 6,000 bottles. In 1970, the second vintage produced, only Cabernet Sauvignon from the estate’s oldest vineyard was used to make the wine.
These two wines alone would be sufficient to make Tachis the father of modern Italian winemaking. Instead, he later, after retiring from Antinori in 1993, created many other famous wines. Solaia, Cervaro della Sala (in close collaboration with Renzo Cotarella), San Leonardo, Sammarco, Vigna di Alceo, Chianti Classico di Castell’in Villa, Saffredi, Guidalberto, Brunello di Montalcino di Argiano, Camartina and Batàr at Querciabella. Then Turriga and Terre Brune in Sardinia, Rosso del Conte Tasca d’Almerita, Milleunanotte and Ben Ryé for Donnafugata and Litra for Abbazia di Sant’Anastasia, in Sicily, Il Pollenza and Il Pelago in the Marche.
He created an impressive number of top-quality wines, perhaps more than anyone else in Italy could claim to have contributed to. In his later years, he preferred to work with estates in southern Italy, especially on the major islands. He often used to say: “If too much sun is bad for the grapes, imagine what too much rain will do…”. This was only one of his cutting quips, for which he was famous. In his last years, he got around less and often had to use a wheelchair.
For sure, one can say he had been a fundamental critical conscience and a very great enologist, one who raised the professional bar in a decisive way. He was a treasure and monument for all those who would then follow in his footsteps.
