Tenuta San Guido Sassicaia

Why we follow Tenuta San Guido Sassicaia

The estate

Mario Incisa della Rocchetta came to the Maremma in the early 1940s, judged the stony ground at Bolgheri to resemble the Graves, and planted just over a hectare of Cabernet at Castiglioncello in 1944. The cuttings came from the Dukes Salviati at Migliarino, near Pisa — not, despite the persistence of the story, from Lafite. For more than twenty years the wine was made only for the family. It was Mario's son Nicolò and his cousin Piero Antinori who pushed to sell it, and Antinori's oenologist Giacomo Tachis who made it saleable. The 1968 was the first commercial vintage, released in the early 1970s. A blind tasting of Cabernet-based wines run by Decanter in 1978, which Sassicaia won, did the rest. The family still owns it. Nicolò is honorary president, the third generation is five cousins, and Graziana Grassini has been consulting oenologist since 2010.

The vineyards

An estate of some 2,500 hectares running thirteen kilometres from the hills to the coast — mostly woodland and arable, plus the wildlife refuge of around 500 hectares that Mario established in 1959 and which still holds more than 250 recorded bird species. Around 75 hectares fall inside the Bolgheri Sassicaia denomination, out of roughly a hundred under vine. The Sassicaia parcels — Castiglioncello, Aia Nuova, Cerreta, Sassicaia di Sopra, San Martino — sit between about 100 and 360 metres, with Castiglioncello, the original 1944 planting, the highest. Soils are calcareous and marl-rich, carrying the stones that gave the wine its name.

In the glass

Cabernet Sauvignon with Cabernet Franc, and no Merlot. The estate publishes no fixed percentages and the ratio moves with the vintage; the denomination requires at least 80 per cent Cabernet Sauvignon. Fermentation held under 29°C, malolactic in stainless steel, then 24 months in French barriques from Troncais, Allier and Jupilles — 40 per cent new, 40 per cent second passage, the balance third — and further time in bottle before release. Bolgheri Sassicaia began as a subzone in 1994 and became a denomination in its own right in 2013. The estate describes it as the only Italian denomination reserved for a single wine from a single estate.

With Lamont’s

Offered through the Private Cellar Selection. Register your interest and we will contact you when the next allocation is confirmed.

Around 180,000 bottles of Sassicaia a year for the entire world, and Western Australia's share of that is small. Guidalberto and Le Difese come in larger quantity. Register your interest and we will contact you ahead of the next release.