Tasting Notes
The 2018 Guidalberto, tasted from an approximate blend from barrel, is positively stellar. I can only hope that the bottled wine is as fresh, vibrant and nuanced as this sample. A rush of black cherry, plum, spice, leather and licorice graces the 2018 with striking depth and nuance. Light on its feet and deep, the 2018 has a lot to offer. In many years, Guidalberto can be a rather rich wine, but in 2018 it is very closely aligned with the house style. Score: 90-93, Tasted Mar 2020, Antionio Galloni - Vinous
Tenuta San Guido is named after the Saint Guido della Gherardesca who lived during the XI century. It is located on the Tyrrhenian coast, between Leghorn and Grosseto, in Maremma an area made famous by Italian Nobel prize winner Giosuè Carducci, and it stretches for 13 km from the sea to the hills.
Three are its defining characteristics: the Sassicaia wine, the Razza Dormello-Olgiata thoroughbred studfarm and the Bird Sanctuary Padule di Bolgheri. They divide the estate between the Padule on the coast, the horse's training grounds on the plain, and the vineyards planted up to 350 meters on the hills. The latter have been given their own DOC, the DOC Bolgheri Sassicaia, the first, and so far only case in Italy of a DOC contained in one estate.
The wedding of Mario Incisa della Rocchetta and Clarice della Gherardesca on October 18th 1930 started it all.
They shared a love for thoroughbred horses that made them form a partnership with horse breeder and trainer Federico Tesio. Mario Incisa's love of good wine made him plant Cabernet vines in 1942 for what was to become Sassicaia. Seventeen years later the Bolgheri Bird Sanctuary becomes Italy's first private nature preserve.
Tenuta San Guido covers 2,500 hectares of prime agricultural land near Bolgheri, on the Tuscan Coast. The estate counts 97 hectares of vines today. The first two hectares were planted in 1942, and following a few years of experimentation, the vineyard holdings grew substantially during the 1950s and 1960s to the current size.
The first commercial vintage of Sassicaia is 1968. This historic Italian wine will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2021, when the 2018 vintage is released. Sassicaia was not produced in 1969 or 1973.
The name Sassicaia comes from the stones, or “sassi" in Italian, found in the historic vineyard. Today, the extended Sassicaia vineyards see soils with alluvial deposits, a mix of silt, clay, sand, gravel and a high concentration of iron and manganese. These give distinctly mineral traits to the wine that become more evident as it evolves. - Winery Note
| Product Type | Wine Red Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot & Friends |
| Volume | 1500ml |
| Country | Italy |
| Region | Tuscany |
| Sub Region | Bolgheri |
| Winemaking Practices | Conventional |
| Vineyard Practices | Conventional |