Tenuta San Guido
Sassicaia
Bolgheri
2013

The producer

One of the first Italian red wines made in the image of fine red Bordeaux, Sassicaia was founded by Marchese Mario Incisa della Roccheta in the 1940s. Having just relocated to the Tenuta San Guido estate on the Tuscan coast, he was experimenting with French grape varieties, and eventually found that Cabernet Sauvignon had what he was looking for. From 1948 to 1967, the wines produced was only consumed privately by Mario’s guests at Tenuta San Guido.

The first commercial release of Sassicaia, as we know it today, was 1968, and in 1978 the 1972 vintage competed in an international blind tasting Cabernet contest organized by Decanter Magazine, and won miles ahead of the other contestants. By this time Sassicaia was on the shopping list of every serious wine collector globally, and here it has remained to this day, arguably being Italy’s most famous export good. In 1994, Sassicaia was granted its own DOC as an official subzone of Bolgheri (“Bolgheri-Sassicaia DOC”) and is still today the only single estate in all of Italy to enjoy this privilege.

The wine

Sassicaia is a Cabernet Sauvignon led Bordeaux blend with fruit derived from a 90-hectare plot of gravelly soils with varying exposure and exact soil compositions. Fermentation takes place in stainless steel and concrete vats and is followed by ageing in small French oak barrels for up to 24 months. Sassicaia is a wine of intense black fruit complexity with cedar and cigar box notes, incredible power, balance, and length, and is sought after by collectors, connoisseurs, and sommeliers the world over. 

We choose our wines based on a range of criteria (see how we choose our wines) of which critic scores is just one. Rather than simply highlight the best score to promote a wine, our average critic score is calculated from the scores provided by several respected wine critics, who we follow for specific regions. They do not represent all critic scores and, wherever possible, we try and give more weight to more recent reviews. Where appropriate we consider market-based scores like Global Wine Score or Wine Searcher Average scores.

As a rule, we look to offer wines that achieve a 92/100 average critic score or better and frankly a lot of very good wines simply don’t make the cut. As a high-end provider we want to reflect that positioning in the quality of wines we offer. Such wines are only a tiny fraction of those generally on offer in the market. We believe that an average score is a more conservative and representative approach, but it is still subjective and only offered as a guide to our customers, who will (and should) do their own research. We will add individual critic scores to our website in the future.