Read more about wine tours to Bolgheri, the capital of Super Tuscan wines
The Super Tuscan Revolution. The year 1968 is remembered in Western Europe as the year of the “Paris Spring” – the French student revolution that defined the further course of European history and cultural development of the continent. The same year saw a major but “quiet” revolution in Italy, which took place not in the world of politics, but in the realm of Italian wine. Exactly in 1968 within a stone’s throw from the alley “with two rows of tall and strong cypresses”, praised by the great Italian poet and Nobel laureate Joze Carducci, leading to the famous town of Bolgheri, the first commercial vintage of Sassicaia, today the most sought after great Italian wine on the international market, was created. Sassicaia opened, together with Tignanello and Solaia from Chianti, the era of the “super Tuscan” wines. But it should be remembered that Sassicaia also has a “pre-history” – it dates back to 1944 when Mario Incisa della Rocchetta was caught up in the war in the Castiglioncello di Bolgheri hunting mansion.
After losing his famous stud farms in Maremma, the Marquis decided to devote himself to wine-making, his second passion, and planted vineyards of the then unseen varieties of Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc in Tuscany, as it was the Bordeaux wines that the Marquis valued most. Mario Incisa della Rocchetta originally made wine only for himself and his friends, but in 1968 his brother-in-law the Marquis Niccolò Antinori (their wives were sisters who came from the famous Counts Gerardesca) persuaded the Marquis Incisa della Rocchetta to prepare and release the wine on the open market. The Marquis Antinori sent a young and promising oenologist, Giacomo Tachis, to help Inchesa della Rocchetta, whose efforts soon led to the appearance of the renowned Sassicaia.
Tachis persuaded the marquis to make the most of recent technological advances in Bordeaux winemaking, in particular he adviced to use 225-litre French oak “Bordeaux” barriques, then unseen in Italy, to age the wine. Together they managed to create an extraordinary wine with deep ruby colour, dense body and velvet tannins, perfectly balanced structure and powerful bouquet with aromas of blackcurrant, cherry, plum, raspberry, raw leather, vanilla, tobacco and fresh grass. Sassicaia proved to be the first “superwine” to truly revolutionise the world of Tuscan winemaking. It was after its sensational appearance on the market in 1972-73, accompanied by immediate worldwide success, that the term “super Tuscan wines” was coined. Despite its great qualities, until 1994 Sassicaia officially had the pejorative status of “table wine” (vino da tavola), since its production did not follow the established rules of Tuscan winemaking – instead of the usual autochthonous Tuscan varieties of Sangiovese-Colorino-Canaiolo, etc. Sassicaia was made from international Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc varieties.
Today, Sassicaia wine is produced in its own Bolgheri Sassicaia DOC, the only protected area in Italy, located within the same Tenuta San Guido estate. The Bolgheri Sassicaia DOC was established in 2013 and includes 70 hectares of Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon vines from Tenuta San Guido. Bolgheri Sassicaia’s red wine must have a minimum of 80% Cabernet Sauvignon, other red varieties officially approved for cultivation in the Tuscan region can be added up to a total of 20%, but the classic blend for Sassicaia is 85% Cabernet Sauvignon and 15% Cabernet Franc. The wine is aged for a minimum of two years, of which 18 months in 225 litre oak barriques. The annual production volume of Sassicaia is undeclared, but is thought to be around 200,000 bottles annually.
‘The best wine in the world’ and its finest vintages. Robert Parker, who remains one of the most respected wine critics on the planet, in a 2015 interview with the Italian press described Sassicaia-1985 as “the most impressive wine he has encountered in his entire 37-year career“. The 1985 vintage of Sassicaia received 100 points not only from Parker but also from Monica Larner. It continues to be regarded as a benchmark and exceptional for this wine and retains considerable potential, so that it can be drunk for at least the next decade. Recent vintages from 2015-2016 have also proved excellent: for example, the ‘wine bible’ of our day, WineSpectator magazine named Sassicaia-2015 the best wine of 2018, and in 2019 Parker again rated Sassicaia-2016 at a maximum of 100 points. Monica Larner also gave it a hundred, noting the exceptional quality of this vintage, comparable to the legendary 1985.
Monika Lerner rated the latest Sassicaia 2018 vintage at 97+ points, commenting: ‘The 2018 vintage represents a stylistic overlap between the two previous vintages. The wine has the precision and elegance of the 2016 vintage (which scored 100 points) and the restraint of the 2017 vintage (which received 94 points). I gave the 2018 vintage a score of 97+ to highlight the considerable ageing potential of this bottle.”
It should be noted that the hunt for “perfect years” in the case of wines from Tuscan Bolgheri and Sassicaia, its main wine, is rather speculative. Unlike France, where the weather is highly susceptible to capricious Atlantic cyclones, Tuscany’s steady Mediterranean climate has no such climatic amplitude at all and accordingly no such difference between “failing” and “good” years. Of all the Tuscan winemaking regions, this climate stability is most characteristic of Bolgheri, which has earned Sassicaia a reputation as one of the most consistent in terms of the quality of wines in the world, thanks to which Sassicaia produces annually, including the 2014 and 2017 vintages, which are considered disappointing in the rest of Tuscany. In this regard, the authoritative opinion of Italy’s most famous wine critic Daniele Cernilli, who stated a couple of years ago, “Better years? Don’t tell anyone, but I prefer ’88 to ’85, which has become a real myth. Then there’s 1998, 2001, among the older years 1977-1978. Among the more recent ones, 2009, the “magic triad” of 2011, 2012, 2013 and the mighty 2015.”