Bolgheri – Super Tuscan wines

• Super Tuscan wines of Bolgheri & Maremma
• Where to stay in Bolgheri and on the Etruscan Coast

 Great wines of Bolgheri – Sassicaia, Ornellaia, Masseto, Paleo, Grattamacco and many others

Miracle of Bolgheri. Cradle of Super Tuscan winemaking
In the last third of the twentieth century, Bolgheri, a tiny town in the south of the province of Livorno, previously known only to fans of the local native – the great poet and Nobel laureate Giosue Carducci, suddenly became a “mecca” for connoisseurs of great wines from all over the world. Indeed, Bolgheri is almost the main sensation in the Italian wine history of the twentieth century, because in just a couple of decades, the first wine of the local subregion, the famous Sassicaia, now the most demanded great wine of Italy on the international market, won worldwide fame by opening together with Tignanello and Solaia from Chianti region, the era of Super Tuscan wines. Interestingly, in the fall of 2015, one of the most respected wine critics on the planet, Robert Parker, even called the 1985 Sassicaia “the most impressive wine he met in all 37 years of his career“.

“Bordeaux” of Tuscany. Tenuta San Guido and Sassicaia
The history of Bolgheri began in the year 1944, when the Marquis Mario Incisa della Rocchetta, the great-grandson of the Piedmontese Marquis Leopoldo Incisa, compiler of the famous wine catalog of 1862, waited out the wartime in the hunting castle of Castiglioncello di Bolgheri. Having lost his famous horse estates in Maremma, requisitioned by the German invaders, the Marquis decided to devote himself to his second passion – winemaking. He planted vineyards of Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc varieties unprecedented in Tuscany on a hill near Castiglioncello at an altitude of about 300 meters, and started to mature the wine in French type small barriques barells, and not in the traditional for Tuscany multi-ton “botti” barells.

After some time, the marquis planted new vineyards no longer on a hill, but on a plain much closer to the sea, but the grape varieties, as well as the method of wine production, were still borrowed from French Bordeaux, because it was Bordeaux wines that were most valued by the marquis. Initially, Incisa della Rocchetta made wines only for himself and his friends, not releasing them for sale. Everything changed in 1968, when the Marquis of Incisa della Rocchetta was visited by his brother-in-law, the Marquis Niccolo Antinori: Incisa della Roccheta’s wife Clarisse and Antinori’s wife Carlotta were sisters descended from the ancient and wealthy Pisan family of the Counts della Gerardesca. One of the counts, the unfortunate Ugolino della Gherardesca, who lived in the 13th century, was even mentioned in Dante’s Divine Comedy.

Niccolò Antinori was so impressed with the “Bordeaux of Bolgheri” that he persuaded the Marquis of Incisa della Rocchetta to release his wine for public sale. In support of his words, he sent to Bolgheri a young oenologist Giacomo Tachis, the fruit of whose efforts was the imminent appearance of the renewed Sassicaia. Tachis managed to create an amazing wine with a rich ruby ​​color, with a dense “body” and velvety tannins, a perfectly balanced structure and a powerful bouquet marked by aromas of black currant, cherry, plum, raspberry, raw leather, vanilla, tobacco and fresh herbs. On the scale of Tuscany (and even the whole of Italy), Sassicaia was the first “super wine” to break the usual notions of what can be done in Tuscany. Despite its grandiose qualities, Sassicaia until 1994 (then the wine received its own appellation – Bolgheri Sassicaia DOC) officially had the derogatory status of “table wine” (vino da tavola), since its production did not follow the rules of winemaking established for Tuscany. To distinguish Sassicaia from the mass-produced cheap wines then common in Italy, the journalists coined the term “Supertuscan wines”, marking the arrival of a new era of “Supertuscan” in Bolgheri and throughout the region.

Wine fever. Bolgheri pioneers
In the 1980s, after the sensational success of Sassicaia, a real “fever” of Supertuscan wines began in the Bolgheri lands. A new generation of local winemakers decided to start producing wine opposite in its characteristics to the mass Tuscan Chianti. The example of the “pioneers” from the Tenuta San Guido winery was followed by the founders of the Grattamaco, Michele Satta, Le Macchiole, Cipriana, Guado al Tasso, Ca’Markanda and others, who produced wines from Bordeaux varieties, which soon formed the “golden fund” of Bolgheri. However, comparable to Sassicaia fame in Bolgheri received only wine estates Ornellaia (Ornellaia), the wines of the other five dozen local producers are located at a respectful distance behind.

Ornellaia and Masseto. Masterpieces by Lodovico Antinori and Andrey Chelishchev
Bolgheri’s second winery was Grattamacco (1977), and the third – Ornellaia, founded by Lodovico Antinori in 1981 on the lands inherited from his mother Carlotta della Gherardesca and previously used mainly for hunting. Taking on a new business, the Marquis Lodovico Antinori, obviously, was eager to surpass his major brother Piero, who inherited most of the land and the position of the “head” of the Antinori clan. Lodovico achieved his goal, because wines from the Ornellaia estate certainly have greater fame and recognition than the wines from the “main” estate of the Antinori clan in Bolgheri Guado al Tasso, owned by the Piero Antinori family. An example for Lodovico Antinori was the Sassicaia wine, created in the Tenuta di San Guido estate in Bolgheri by the husband of his aunt Mario Incisa della Rocchetta and the “father” of Supertuscan wines, oenologist Giacomo Tachis.

The direct creator of Ornellaia wine was the American oenologist of Russian origin André Tchelistcheff (Andrey Chelishchev). At first, Tchelistcheff relied on the familiar to him in California and already “thundered” in Bolgheri Cabernet Sauvignon. However, Tchelistcheff soon opened Masseto – a site that allows to get Merlot of exceptional quality. Since then, the Ornellaia wine estate has been producing Masseto wines from 100% Merlot, obtaining amazingly juicy and delicate wines with bright berry aromas, dominated by plums. Masseto is considered to be the most expensive wine in Bolgheri. The main wine of the Ornellaia estate, which bears his name – Ornellaia, created on the basis of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet franc and Petit Verdot and is on sale almost three to four times cheaper.

Today, Ornellaia no longer belongs to Lodovico Antinori, who directed all his efforts to the development of the Tenuta di Biserno estate, located 5 kilometers north of Bolgheri. The new owners of Ornellaia – the Marquises Frescobaldi family, who initially shared property rights with the American Mondavi family, but then remained the main owners of the winery. In 2016, important changes took place in the fate of the estate – it was decided to separate the Masseto vineyard into a separate estate with its own winery.

64 Bolgheri wineries
Today, the Bolgheri DOC wine consortium includes 64 wineries, and this figure is unlikely to change, since the consortium forbids the establishment of new vineyards in Bolgheri. The total wine production of the Bolgheri DOC consortium is approximately 4.5 million bottles. Of these, red wines of the Bolgheri Rosso category account for about 3 million bottles, and for red wines of the Bolgheri Superiore Superior category – about 1 million. The historic Bolgheri Sassicaia DOC wine is produced in a volume of approximately 200 thousand bottles. Most of the Bolgheri red supertuscan wines, including legends such as Sassicaia and Ornellaia, are made by mixing two or more Bordeaux varieties (Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Petit Verdot), often blended with the classic Tuscan autochthonous Sangiovese (Grattamacco) or South French variety Syrah (Guado al Tasso). Mono-varietal wines were no less famous – an example of the “precious” Masseto (100% Merlot) was the first to be used in the Le Macchiole estate, creating the legendary wines Messorio (100% Merlot), Paleo Rosso (100% Cabernet Franc), Scrio ( 100% Syrah), then many other estates followed, including the neighboring winery Giovanni Chiappini, which, in addition to the highest category wine Bolgheri Superiore Guado dei Gemoli (80% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot), produce a mono-varietal line Lienà ( Lienà Merlot, Lienà Cabernet Franc, Lienà Cabernet Sauvignon, Lienà Petit Verdot).

The core of the Bolgheri DOC concern, which produces most of its production, remain aristocratic estates associated with the original owners of local lands – the counts of della Gherardesca (most of the Bolgheri territory still belongs to the direct heirs of the three sisters from the Gherardesca family): Tenuta San Guido (Marquis of Incisa della Roqueta ), Guado al Tasso (family of the Marquis Piero Antinori), Ornellaia (Marquis Lodovico Antinori – Marquises Frescobaldi), Castello di Bolgheri (Counts of Ziglieri dal Verme), etc. Other, but often no less famous wineries, belong to external investors (Grattamacco, Campo alla Sugera, Ca’Markanda, etc.) and local residents (Le Macchiole, Giovanni Chiappini, etc.).

The wine regions of Bolgheri DOC and Bolgheri Sassicaia DOC
The Bolgheri DOC and Bolgheri Sassicaia DOC wine regions are just 12 square kilometers piece of land, lost in the vastness of the Maremma, the southern half of the Tuscan coast, where wine is made everywhere. Nevertheless, it is Bolgheri that remains the main winemaking center in seaside Tuscany and one of the “wine capitals” of Italy and the world in general.

The Bolgheri DOC wine zone was established in 1994, at the same time the Sassicaia sub-zone was allocated in it. The production regulations of the appellation have changed several times, the last time it would have been changed in 2013, at the same time the Sassicaia sub-zone received the status of an independent wine zone Bolgheri Sassicaia DOC. The current Bolgheri DOC production regulations imply the production of the following wines: Bianco white wines include the following varieties – Vermentino (0-70%), Sauvignon Blanc (0-40%) and Trebbiano Toscano (0-40%); Rosato rosé wines and Rosso red wines are composed of Cabernet Sauvignon (0-100%), Merlot (0-100%), Cabernet Franc (0-100%), Syrah (0-50%) and Sangiovese (0-50%). Red wines go on sale no earlier than September of the year following the harvest. Superiore red wines (Superior category) are produced from low-yielding vineyards, have a high alcohol content, and must be aged for two years, including one year in oak barrels.
The Bolgheri Sassicaia DOC wine zone is the only protected area in Italy located within the same Tenuta San Guido estate, where the only wine produced is Sassicaia. DOC Bolgheri Sassicaia was formed in 2013 and includes 68 hectares of Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon vineyards of Tenuta San Guido. According to the production regulations, Bolgheri Sassicaia red wine has a mandatory composition of at least 80% Cabernet Sauvignon, it can be added to other red varieties officially approved for cultivation in the Tuscany region, with a total share of up to 20%, but the classic blend for Sassicaia is 85% Cabernet Sauvignon and 15% Cabernet franc. The wine should be aged for at least two years, of which 18 months – in oak barriques with a volume of 225 liters.

The Best Wine in the World and Its Best Years
Robert Parker, one of the most respected wine critics on the planet, in 2015, in an interview with the Italian press, called the 1985 Sassicaia “the most impressive wine he met in all 37 years of his career”, then at the end of 2018 he awarded the 2015 Sassicaia the cherished 100 points. The famous italian wine critic Daniele Cernilli held a vertical tasting of Sassiacaia wine at the Anteprima Grandi Cru della Costa Toscana on May 5, 2018 in Lucca, celebrated other “good years for this wine:“ Better years? Don’t tell anyone, but I prefer 88 to 85, which has become a real myth. More – 1998, 2001, among the old years – 1977-1978. Among the latter are 2009, the “magic triad” 2011, 2012, 2013 and the most powerful 2015”. ”http://www.doctorwine.it/firmato-doctorwine/firmato-dw/la-stella-del-sassicaia.

First Bolgheri, then Maremma
By now, Bolgheri is already very “crowded”, the area of ​​vineyards here is more than 800 hectares, all land suitable for winemaking is used for them. All the great wine-making families of Tuscany and Italy got their own estates here, the total number of which has already exceeded forty. But the point here may be not only unique features, but also purely commercial factors – a bottle of wine from Bolgheri automatically costs several times more than wine produced at least in Bibbona, located at a distance of 3 kilometers from Bolgheri, where the Marquis Lodovico Antinori creates new masterpieces at the Tenuta di Biserno winery after parting with the established Ornellaia estate. The advantages of the Bolgheri terroir – the unique climate, the proximity of the sea, the soil rich in minerals, the ridge of high hills that protect the vineyards from the northerly and easterly winds, in fact, are characteristic of the lands of almost the entire coast of Tuscany, known as “Maremma”, stretching south of Pisa and Livorno to the border with Lazio for almost 200 kilometers. The Maremma boasts four appellations with a protected brand name of controlled and guaranteed origin DOCG – Morellino di Scansano, famous for its fine and fresh wines from the autochthonous Sangiovese variety, the “little sisters” and rival of Bolgheri’s Val di Cornia and Suvereto, where only red wines based on Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Sangiovese are produced, as well as Montecucco Sangiovese, where the “heroic” Sangiovese is grown at an impressive height for local winemaking (up to 500 meters).

The rest of the classified areas, including Bolgheri Sassicaia, have achieved only DOC status, but their list is quite extensive: Bolgheri Sassicaia, Bolgheri, Ansonica Costa dell’Argentario, Capalbio, Parrina, Sovana, Montescudaio, Bianco di Pitigliano, Montereggio, Terratico and di also mentioned above Val di Cornia, Suvereto, Montecucco. In addition, producers from all over the Maremma, if necessary, can freely experiment with the varietal composition of the wines, taking advantage of the opportunity to designate their wines as Maremma Toscana IGT. In recent years, the world’s leading wine houses such as the Rothschild barons have been actively investing in the Maremma. It can be assumed that over time, the entire “Etruscan Coast” and Maremma will earn the same fame that little Bolgheri has now. An important feature of the Maremma winemaking is its still not fully developed “experimental” (in a good sense) character – they make magnificent (and often great) red, white, rosé and sparkling wines from autochthonous and international varieties. The most famous oenologists of Tuscany – Carlo Ferrini, Paolo Trappolini and Luca d’Attoma – work in Maremma.

Suvereto – Bolgheri’s younger sister. DOCG Suvereto Wine Region
The tiny wine-growing region of DOCG Suvereto, named after the picturesque medieval town of the same name, is located in the central part of the seaside Tuscany, 40 kilometers south of Bolgheri, the legendary capital of Supertuscan winemaking. Actually, Suvereto can be called the younger sister and neighbor of Bolgheri, since the features of their terroirs are very similar – only in the case of Suvereto, everything is of a more miniature character: just like Bolgheri, Suvereto is located on a fertile plain next to the sea in an “theater” of hills.
Just like Bolgheri, Suvereto is famous primarily for its powerful red wines of the Supertuscan style with an emphasis on Bordeaux varieties. As in Bolgheri, in Suvereto there is a historical estate that is one of the elite of world winemaking – the famous Tua Rita, whose now iconic Redigaffi wine was the first in Italy to receive the coveted 100 points from Parker (although Tua Rita itself now prefers to release its wines in the “independent” categories Toscana IGT, not Suvereto DOCG). The history of winemaking in Suvereto, as well as in the entire Tuscan seaside Maremma, began in the Etruscan antiquity almost three thousand years ago and was not interrupted in the era of Rome, the Middle Ages and Modern times.

Wines from Suvereto won some recognition even before their colleagues from Bolgheri (where until the second half of the twentieth century, winemaking had an exclusively “peasant” format) – suffice it to recall that back in 1886, five local winemakers participated in the World Exhibition in Rome. In 1989, wineries from Suvereto entered the then established DOC Val di Cornia wine zone, and in 2000, the Suvereto subzone was established within it. In 2011, Suvereto received its own independent appellation DOCG Suvereto, which included the entire territory of the municipality of Suvereto in the province of Livorno. Currently, according to the Suvereto DOCG production regulations, only red wines of the following names are allowed to be produced: Suvereto DOCG – Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot in variable proportions, or using a single variety; Suvereto Sangiovese DOCG-min. 85% Sangiovese, Suvereto Merlot DOCG-min. 85% Merlot, Suvereto Cabernet Sauvignon DOCG-min. 85% Cabernet Sauvignon. Suvereto, Suvereto Sangiovese, Suvereto Merlot and Suvereto Cabernet Sauvignon DOCG wines must have a minimum alcohol content of 13%. All wines are allowed for sale from June 1 to the second year from the date of harvest, Riserva wines must have a minimum aging of 24 months, of which at least 18 months – in oak barrels.

Booking.com

Where to stay in Bolgheri – rural hotels and agritourism villas:

Directly in the center of Bolgheri there is a guest house – mini-hotel Strada Giulia 16. It offers air-conditioned rooms and breakfast in a nearby cafe – booking.com

Castello di Bolgheri is set in an olive grove in a medieval manor house, 100 meters from Bolgheri Castle. Self-catering apartment with air conditioning – booking.com

Villa–hotel La Salina offers private accommodation in Bibbona, 3 km from Bolgheri. It offers – outdoor pool, hydromassage, terrace, shared living area with fireplace – booking.com

Relais Sant’Elena is a rural hotel located outside Bibbona. It offers an outdoor pool and a restaurant – booking.com

Where to stay on the Etruscan Coast – hotels and touristic villages:

In Marina di Castagnetto Carducci, the famous five-star hotel Tombolo Talasso Resort 5 * with a private beach and an excellent spa center is located – booking.com

The four-star Grand Hotel Villa Parisi 4 * is located in Castiglioncello on a high rocky promontory. Direct access to the sea, outdoor pool, a seafood restaurant with panoramic sea terrace – booking.com

The four-star hotel Tuscany Alle Dune 4 * is located in a pine forest in Marina di Castagneto Carducci, 100 meters from its private beach. Outdoor pool, beach restaurant, spa – booking.com

The four-star hotel Bolgheri Marina Resort 4 * is located in the center of Marina di Bibbona, 200 meters from the beach. It offers a terrace with a pool and a restaurant – booking.com

The four-star Sabbia D’oro 4 * hotel overlooking the Tuscan archipelago is located right on the beach in San Vincenzo. Seafood restaurant, spa center with sauna and hydromassage – booking.com

The Park Hotel Marinetta Village Resort is located in Marina di Bibbona in a park with its own beach. It offers a wellness center, indoor and outdoor pools with restaurants, spa – booking.com

The eco-village Paradù Tuscany is located in Marina di Castagneto Carducci. Private beach, outdoor hydro-massage pool, playground, restaurant, wine bar and beach restaurant – booking.com

In Marina di Castagneto Carducci, right on a private beach, there is the Canado Club Family Village resort with 2 restaurants, a swimming pool and leisure facilities. Rooms and apartments are at the guests’ disposal – booking.com

In San Vincenzo, surrounded by a 14-hectare park, is located the Garden Toscana Resort Village. Sports and wellness center, 3 restaurants, 4 bars, 2 swimming pools and a private beach – booking.com