Feature
| Winery |
Tenuta San Guido |
| Sub Region |
Tuscany, Italy |
| Variety |
70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Sangiovese |
| Format |
750ML |
| ABV |
13.5% |
| Disgorging |
|
| Dosage |
|
| Certification |
|
Tasting Note
Vinous 90, Antonio Galloni
The 2017 Le Difese is plump, juicy and inviting, with lovely textural richness and volume. Sweet red cherry, spice, leather, tobacco and menthol are amped up by the natural richness and radiance of the year. This is an especially supple, lush Difese. I would prefer to drink it over the next handful of years.
James Suckling 92
A fruity, delicious red with currant, plum and berry aromas and flavors and a citrusy, floral undertone. Medium body. Long and caressing. The second wine of Sassicaia. Why wait on this one? Drink now.
Wine Enthusiast 90, Kerin OKeefe
Made with 70% Cabernet Sauvignon and 30% Sangiovese, this offers aromas of blackberry, charred earth, blue flower and a whiffs of oak-driven spice. The linear, elegant palate offers dried black cherry, black currant and licorice alongside taut polished tannins.
Winemaking
Le Difese is the third wine of Tenuta San Guido and is a blend of 70% Cabernet Sauvignon and 30% Sangiovese.
Fermented in stainless steel, and aged for 10 months in French and American oak barrels and for a further three months in the bottle.
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.
