For decades, Renzo Cotarella has quietly steered Marchese Piero Antinori’s now vast winemaking empire, overseeing production for some of Antinori’s top bottlings, including super Tuscans Tignanello and Solaia, the latter earning Wine Spectator’s Wine of the Year honor in 2000.
“When I began reviewing the wines from Tuscany in 2010, Renzo made a point of meeting with me personally to say, ‘Whatever you need, just ask. I’m here for you,’” said Wine Spectator senior editor Bruce Sanderson in his introduction. “It’s always a great pleasure and learning experience … and I can say he’s become a great friend.”
While Cotarella is best known for his collectible reds from Tuscany, he served an Umbrian white, Antinori’s 2019 Castello della Sala Cervaro della Sala (92 points, $60)—a wine of great significance for Cotarella.
It’s also one of Italy’s most renowned white wines, a Chardonnay-based blend with about 15 percent Grechetto, a local grape that lends a freshness to the wine.
“I started working many years ago, but my career was changed today, 53 years ago, when I lost my father in an accident,” Cotarella shared. “I used to love chemistry, but after this accident, as my father was a grower, I decided to study agriculture.”
“And [Castello della Sala] has been, let’s say, my ‘castle’ along the way,” said Cotarella. “My father used to bring me to the bus stop nearby, and as a little boy I always wondered what was life like inside the castle?”
Cotarella, whose older brother Riccardo is now one of Italy's leading enologists, was introduced to Piero Antinori while studying viticulture and agronomy in Perugia in the late 1970s. His first job for Antinori was at Castello della Sala, where Renzo would become estate director before eventually taking over responsibility for all Antinori winemaking operations in the mid-1990s.
“In 1979, the dream became a reality. … My time there was really unique. I have a lot of memories, many things happened there. That was really probably the best part of my life. And I had the chance to work with Piero.”
