Feature

Winery	Tenuta San Guido
Sub Region	Bolgheri
Variety	85% Cabernet Sauvignon \| 15% Cabernet Franc
Format	750ML
ABV	14.5%
Disgorging
Dosage
Certification

Tasting Note

Wine Advocate 100, Monica Larner, 05 January 2024

Here it is: A quintessential Sassicaia that represents the excellence of the vintage and also respects the unique taste profile of this distinguished Tuscan blend of Cabernets Sauvignon and Franc. The Tenuta San Guido 2021 Bolgheri Sassicaia offers impeccable balance, excellent freshness and absolutely no signs of over-ripeness. The fruit balance is ideal with a hint of crunch and lasting tension from pulp and skins. The tannins are deftly managed with firm grip and enough velvetiness to add volume and length. There is no greenness on the bouquet that instead offers mulled herbs and spice, with cinnamon and clove, layered delicately between mostly red and some purple berry fruits. Redcurrant, blueberry, sweet pomegranate and Rainier cherry run strong in this vintage. A fragrant hint of heritage rose emerges with time. The oak tones are geared toward gingerbread, hazelnut, cigar, sandalwood and something like a grilled sweet red pepper. To the palate, it offers nice weight with no heavy glycerin, and a rinse of acidity that adds to the wine’s natural energy, brightness and viscosity. That marked freshness opens the wine up to long aging potential, but you still need to give it more time in bottle.

Drinking Window: 2028 - 2060

Winemaking Winery

Selection of grapes on a sorting table to eliminate impurities and imperfections. Very soft pressing to avoid breaking the grapes and delicate destemming to avoid the release of improper tannins.

The alcoholic fermentations (with company and appropriately selected yeasts) concluded in the first week of November and took place regularly with controlled temperatures not exceeding 28-29 °C. Outdoor delestages and pumping over operations facilitated excellent extraction in terms of polyphenols but also with a large aromatic component and good freshness of the musts.

The malolactic fermentations (always spontaneous) took place in steel and concluded in the first days of December. Already from the first week of December 2021, after appropriate decanting of the musts, the wine was placed in oak barriques.

At the end of the malolactic fermentation, the wine was placed in barriques using approximately 40% new wood, a further 40% first passage and 20% second passage. For the 2021 vintage, French oak wood was used (Tronçais, Allier and Jupilles in particular) with extra-fine grain, light toasting and long seasoning.

After 24 months of aging in wood, was decanted into steel tanks before assembly. Subsequent refinement in bottle before marketing.

Winery

In the 1920s the Marchese Mario Incisa della Rocchetta dreamt of creating a new wine, that would be able to compete with the best Bordeaux.

By 1940s, having settled on the Tenuta San Guido he decided to plant Cabernet Sauvignon partly due to the similarity he noted between Tuscan soil and that of Graves in Bordeaux.

The first vintages were not warmly received, and thus from 1948 to 1967, Sassicaia remained a strictly consumed at Tenuta San Guido. After a few years he realized that by ageing the wine it improved considerably. It was not until 1968 that Sassicaia was first commercially released.

Over the next few years, the cellar was moved to a temperature controlled location, steel fermentation vats replaced wooden vats, and French barriques were introduced to the aging process.

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Tenuta San Guido Sassicaia, 2021, 750ML