SASSICAIA is one of Italy’s most famous wines, it is the original Super Tuscan

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Like all great Italian wines, this one also has a history. Tenuta San Guido was established by marchese Mario Incisa della Rocchetta.

Mario Incisa della Rocchetta grew up in Piedmont then Rome. He fought in the first World War as part of the cavalry and afterwards he enrolled in the faculty of Agriculture in Pisa. He brought the horse he rode during the war with him. During this time, he became involved in the local equestrian community and it was through his love of thoroughbred horses that he met Clarice della Gherardesca. She was the daughter of Giuseppe della Gherardesca and the American Harriet Taylor. Mario and Clarice married in 1930 in the old church in Bolgheri then settled in Rome and restored one of the properties owned by Mario’s mother. It was here that they began to raise thoroughbreds and the most famous Italian racehorse of all time, Ribot, came from their stable.

After World War II, Mario and Clarice decided to move back to Bolgheri where Clarice, along with her sister, had inherited Tenuta delle Capanne. Bolgheri is in the Livornese Maremma. It has one of the most diverse eco-systems of southern Europe. Mario decided to invest in his wife’s family property. Money wasn’t a problem thanks to Ribot’s earnings, both in prize-money and stud fees. Due to the war, much of the property was in a state of neglect and one of Mario’s first priorities was to re-organize the agricultural portion of Clarice’s inheritance. This was Tenuta di San Guido. Mario had actually been working on his pet project since 1942, but it was on terraces hidden amongst holm oaks and the trees of Castiglioncello, that the adventure of Sassicaia began.

The name Sassicaia (Italian sasso meaning "stone", indicating a stony field) originated in 1948 when first produced by Incisa della Rocchetta using Cabernet Sauvignon vines and for years only used for family consumption. Though for years Sassicaia remained the marchese’s personal wine, his son Nicolò and nephew Piero Antinori convinced him to release it commercially, starting with the 1968 vintage, which was unveiled in 1971. Mario Incisa della Rocchetta hired consulting enologist Giacomo Tachis to further refine the wine while increasing production. At a 1978 Decanter tasting of "great clarets", a panel including Hugh Johnson, Serena Sutcliffe and Clive Coates awarded the 1972 Sassicaia first place over a field of 33 wines from 11 countries. In 1994 Sassicaia was granted its own DOC (Bolgheri Sassicaia DOC), the only wine from a single estate in Italy to enjoy this privilege.

Sassicaia was already well known by the 1980s, but there was a sensation when Robert Parker awarded the 1985 vintage 100 points, saying that he often mistook it for 1986 Mouton-Rothschild. The excellence of the wine has been confirmed at tastings ever since. This was not the first time Sassicaia had wowed critics. In 1978, Decanter held a worldwide Cabernet tasting in which the 1975 Sassicaia triumphed. But its reputation has been eclipsed by that of the 1985, which now fetches prices far higher than any other Sassicaia vintage.

100/100 points Robert Parker, The Wine Advocate “I have had this wine in tastings with 1985 and 1986 Bordeaux first-growths and top 1985 California Cabernets. In each tasting the 1985 Sassicaia has not only been my favorite, but the first choice of the majority of the tasters. Unquestionably one of the most compelling and dramatic Cabernet Sauvignons I have ever tasted, it continues to go from strength to strength”

The Sassicaia of Tenuta San Guido is an important and legendary wine, a Bordeaux blend of Bolgheri, aged for 24 months in barrique. Intense and complex, rich in herbaceous and mineral aromas, wild fruits, graphite, Mediterranean stain, and with a soft and robust character

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A Great Wine !