Offered MAY 5th, 2017

The Tuscan Coast is one of Italy’s prime wine production zones – its best red wines are among the greatest and most famous. The climate is much warmer than Montalcino, and so rather than Sangiovese it is the Bordeaux grape varieties that produce the best wines from Tuscany.

In the 1920s, the Marchese Mario Incisa della Rocchetta dreamt of creating an aristocratic Bordeaux-styled wine. Two decades and several experiments later, he and his wife settled on the Tyrrhenian coast and founded Tenuta San Guido, with a vineyard planted to mostly Cabernet Sauvignon.

Sassicaia means “the place of many stones,” referring to the gravelly soil found throughout the region. The vineyards have a southwest exposure, with prolonged sun that creates strong and healthy vegetation. For the first twenty years of production, Sassicaia remained the marchese’s personal wine until his son and nephew Piero Antinori convinced him to release it commercially.

Beginning with the 1968 vintage, the wine was first offered and reached universal acclaim – it is now considered one of the world’s best Cabernet Sauvignon wines, and its success prompted the Italian government to grant the wine its own DOC.

Sassicaia 1997
15 bottles available
$320 per bottle

94 points Neal Martin: “Now this is more like it. A very Bordeaux-like nose with cedar, cigar-box, autumn leaves and a touch of damp earth. With some aeration, more Morello evolves, a touch of raspberry. The palate is medium-bodied with fresh acidity, very crisp and quite backward: a wine that seems to have gone back into its shell. Again, it is utterly in the vein of a Bordeaux , Saint Julien to be more precise with a fairly austere, reserved finish. Good weight though, so I would give another 5 or 6-years before opening a bottle. Drink 2012-2020. Tasted March 2007.”

94 points Wine Spectator: “Dark ruby red. Blackberry, with lots of fresh herb and meat character. Full-bodied, with velvety tannins and loads of fresh fruit and tarragon. Dill flavors on the finish. Textbook Sassicaia that grows in the mouth. Give it a little more time.”