From Horses to Wines: The Birth of Tenuta San Guido’s Legends

It’s no exaggeration to say that Tenuta San Guido is the birthplace of not one, but two different legends, both a product of two passion projects by Marchese Mario Incisa Rocchetta – racehorses and wines. Perhaps you may be thinking that horsing around is a bit of a random deviation from our focus on the wines of Tenuta San Guido. But without the horses, we may never have even gotten Sassicaia!

It was the shared passion for thoroughbred horses that brought Mario and his wife Clarice della Gherardesa together. After their marriage, Mario and Clarice began raising thoroughbred horses together with the legendary Italian horse breeder, Frederica Tesio. This partnership would eventually lead to the birth of Ribot, who what many experts consider to be one of the greatest thoroughbred racehorses in the world. In Chinese Feng Shui, horses are an auspicious symbol of power, good luck and success. The good fortune of earnings from Ribot’s prize money and stud fees was an undoubtedly good omen for Mario’s pursuit of his winemaking passion, allowing him to go on to his next big adventure, which would ultimately result in the birth of Sassicaia.

The legendary thoroughbred horse, Ribot

Eventually, Mario would also go on to reorganize the property of Tenuta San Guido in Bolgheri, which was inherited through Clarice. And thus began to story of Sassicaia, the birth of the first “Super Tuscan” wine.

The Bolgheri region emerged as somewhat of an underdog among wine producers, with its poor reputation before a renewal that Sassicaia brought about. While 1968 marks the first Sassicaia vintage ever brought to market, Mario Incisa Della Rocchetta had actually started producing wines in 1948 from the vineyards of the inherited Bolgheri estate through his wife Clarice della Gherardesa, though these were just for personal consumption. Bear in mind that this period was just shy of a few years since the globe had come out of World War II, and the quality of wine production in Europe, much less in more non-traditional winemaking regions such as Italy, was in a dismal state. That being said, Mario’s wines from the initial post-war years were not well-received by the public and wine critics at the outset – Mario once recalled in a letter that some critics had even harshly deemed the wines to be “disgusting”.

Mario Incisa Della Rocchetta (right) and his son Nicoló (left) (Image Source: Tenuta San Guido)

Mario’s winemaking at the vineyards in Bolgheri had almost lost steam, until he cautiously offered a sample of his wine once again to some of his wine industry friends in the 1960s. This time, the reception was so good that it reignited his passion and confidence to bring Sassicaia out into the market. This excitement spurred him to expand the property, planting a second vineyard at a stonier, down-sloping part of his estate – this would become the Sassicaia vineyard. Eventually the world would get the first Sassicaia vintage in 1968. Lucky for us, or we may have never gotten to know the Super Tuscans!

Older Sassicaia vintages that weren't brought to the commercial market (Image Source: Tenuta San Guido)

A Super Tuscan Is What Happens When You Chase Quality Over Qualifiers

Sassicaia, under the watch of Mario Incisa Della Rocchetta, was the first to spearhead the rise of the Super Tuscans – red wines of superior quality that could rival that of traditional classic Bordeaux wines. Super Tuscans are often made of grapes not native to the region, such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot – grape varietals more commonly associated with traditional Bordeaux wines.

Before the advent of the Super Tuscans, Italy already had established conventions for winemaking and an institutionalized classification system that granted qualified wines with the DOC (Denominazione di Origine Controllata) or DOCG (Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Grantita) label. Italian wines were prominently produced from native Sangiovese grapes, which are an important factor to meet the criteria for Italy’s DOC and DOCG classifications.

However, Mario was so taken by the Bordeaux wines he had once sampled in his youth that the local wines just weren’t cutting it for him anymore. Rather than chasing the classification of DOC or DOCG, Mario was fixated on his pursuit to recreate the Bordeaux quality of wines that he loved right at home. And so, he made his way to one of Bordeaux’s most prominent estates, Mouton Rothschild, to find out the secrets of Bordeaux winemaking. There, he learned that some changes to the location of the vineyards had to be made to plant his vines at a higher elevation above the sea level and on stonier soil, a closer resemblance to the environment of Bordeaux’s left bank. Back in Bolgheri, he planted Bordeaux varietal grapevines of Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc on an area up on the hills of Bolgheri overlooking the sea, which is what would become the legendary Sassicaia vineyard. Here, the soils had much more stones – giving Sassicaia its name, which translates to the “area of many stones”.

The vineyards of Tenuta San Guido (Image Source: Tenuta San Guido)

Sassicaia was met with widespread international acclaim when it hit the market, earning high praise from critics such as the highly-regarded Robert Parker, who awarded Sassicaia’s 1985 vintage a perfect score of 100 points – cementing its status as a legend. And yet, because Sassicaia was produced from Bordeaux grape varietals, but not the Italian Sangiovese grape, this disqualified it from being recognized as a DOC or DOCG, and as a result the wine was customarily categorized as a table wine. An unclassified table wine with a 100-point perfect score from none other than Robert Parker? Something had to be amiss here. It wasn’t until 1992 that Super Tuscan wines could be categorized as something other than a table wine as they were allowed to be labelled as Toscana IGT (Indication Geografica Tipica), which allowed for a wider variety of grapes and styles for wines from Tuscany.

The Sassicaia 1968 - the first ever commercially sold Sassicaia vintage (Image Source: Christie's)

Eventually in 1994, the Sassicaia vineyard was officially recognized as its own sub-region of the Bolgheri DOC, called the Bolgheri Sassicaia. Under the new wine laws, Bolgheri sub-region criteria allowed Super Tuscan type wines made entirely from foreign grape varieties such as Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Syrah (though only up to 50%). A limit of up to 50% of Sangiovese grapes was also permitted.

Hand-harvested grapes at the vineyards of Tenuta San Guido (Image Source: Tenuta San Guido)

Intentional or not, Mario’s journey in recreating the Bordeaux quality of wines at home in Bolgheri with what was – by Italian winemarking standards – “non-traditional” methods was a pretty renegade move. By ignoring and refusing to conform to the Italian DOC and DOCG wine regulations of the time, Sassicaia became the catalyst for the rise the Super Tuscan wine category – paving the way for similar winemakers that had a similar quality-focused philosophy, with a particular penchant for grape varietals outside of Italy and refining their production techniques with little regard for what convention dictated.

Sassicaia’s Winemaking: Bordeaux Inspiration on Bolgheri Soils

The wines from Sassicaia owe the power and robustness of their flavour to the natural environment of the Bolgheri area. The Tenuta San Guido property has a Mediterranean climate, and its location between the Bolgheri and Castagneto Carducci hills shield the vineyards from unforgiving winds from the northeast. The property overlooks the sea, with its vines planted up to 400 metres above sea level, providing a favourable humidity for the grapes and ecological environment of the area. True to the Sassicaia name, the land is abundant in mineral-rich gravel and stones, as well as clayey, sandy soils, which all go help to impart a distinct minerality to the wines.

The Hills of Bolgheri (Image Source: Tenuta San Guido)

The fine quality of wines that emerge from Sassicaia are also the result of critical contributions and improvements made by Giacomo Tachis, the oenologist appointed by Mario Incisa Della Rocchetta to lead wine production at Tenuta San Guido. Fashioning himself as the “guardian of the grapes”, Tachis made several decisions to greatly enhance the Sassicaia wines and employing methods reminiscent of Bordeaux techniques, such as lowering the yields through raising the density of grapevines, temperature-controlled fermentation, and ageing the wines in French barriques for around 24 months, instead of in the usual Slovenian barrels. After barrel ageing, the wine is further aged in the bottle before being released. Sassicaia wines are made predominantly from Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc grapes, which are completely hand-harvested for the estate to ensure its quality. This was quite the upheaval from the Italian method of wine production, and this unconventional decision had undoubtedly paid off.

Giacomo Tachis, founding father of the Super Tuscans (Image Source: Decanter)

Today, Tenuta San Guido is helmed by the third generation of the Incisa Della Rocchetta family, Nicoló Incisa Della Rocchetta, and the family continues to carry on the legacy and heritage of the estate.

Wine Review: Sassicaia 2020, Tenuta San Guido Bolgheri

We’re having a go at the Sassicaia 2020 vintage, which bears its hallmark Bolgheri DOC Sassicaia classification. This wine is made with 85% Cabernet Sauvignon and 15% Cabernet Franc harvested in September and underwent temperature-controlled fermentation, which was completed by the end of October in that year. It was then placed in steel for malolactic fermentation at the end of November, then subsequently placed in oak barriques in the first week of December. The Sassicaia 2020 was aged for 25 months in 45% new wood, 45% first passage and 10% second passage, before being decanted into steel tanks for blending and then being bottled.

With all that said, let’s see how it tastes!

Tasting Notes

Colour: Deep Ruby

Aroma: Incredibly aromatic and evocative, with heady florals of roses and violets, alongside a richness of raisins and raspberries. There’s also some earthiness of soil, chocolates, tobacco. More on blackcurrants at the base. It’s marvellously rich, soft and plush, deep and sensuous, yet at the same time rich and powerful in its bouquet.

Taste: It opens up with great richness, it’s medium bodied, just as plush and velvety as its aromas. Filled in with raspberries and red currants, it’s got streaks of tartness and acidity. It’s fitted into a polished yet chiselled and elegant structure, a muscular yet supple and rounded frame. More aromatics in the form of tobacco. It’s got great richness, depth and concentration, although the tannins still do feel alittle tight and tense. It’s fresh and vibrant, yet taut.

Finish: Some greenness emerges here, of vine leaves, green peppers, joined by more earthiness of leather and chocolates, some blackcurrants filling in the backdrop. It’s alittle savoury and tart, the tannins continues to tighten up here, yet it still maintains a broadly supple texture with the immense richness. The freshness persists as does the tension. A long and powerful finish through and through.

My Thoughts

An incredible wine to say the least - where the Sassicaia stands out here is the immense power and concentration of the wine, with such depth, richness and plushness, and yet above all, it retains an utter elegance. It always feels balanced and structured, never flabby nor out of sync. It commands such presence and yet doesn’t feel overdone, jammy or boozy. It puts itself on display in such a polished and orderly manner that is really makes it so impeccably impressive.

It’s not wildly unusual or overly complex, fairly straightforward even, yet the flavours and aromas are so bold and vibrant, such power and finesse in its delivery. It feels like an incredibly polished and intentional wine that fully expresses itself in such an assured manner.

This is after all still a very young vintage and already it is so incredibly impressive, already ready to be enjoyed, and yet the firm and tightly knitted tannins and tauter body tells me that this could easily go for many more years of ageing to fully loosen and open up. This more than lives up to its hype!

Until next time, happy sipping!

@ChopstickPride