Feature
| Winery |
Tenuta San Guido |
| Sub Region |
Toscana
|
| Variety |
60% Cabernet Sauvignon | 40% Merlot |
| Format |
750ML |
| ABV |
14.5% |
| Disgorging |
|
| Dosage |
|
| Certification |
|
Tasting Note
Wine Advocate 94, Monica Larner, 21 March 2024
Made with Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, the Tenuta San Guido 2022 Guidalberto gives you a good taste of the same DNA that brings us one of Italy's greatest wines, Sassicaia, but it's offered in a more immediate style here (thanks to the addition of the Merlot). This warm vintage opens to medium-dark concentration and very plump aromas that take you immediately to blackberry and blackcurrant sitting out in the sun at your local farmers market. The wine shows a soft and gentle side with a pretty level of elegance transmitted through the fruit freshness and the light oak spice that is discernible here but delivered with grace.
Drinking Window: 2024 - 2030
Winemaking Winery
Harvesting by hand and further selection by using a sorting table. Destemming and soft pressing of the grapes to limit the release of tannins and maintain maximum elegance.
Introduction into stainless steel fermentation tanks at an average temperature of 19-20°C. Using dry ice to further cool the machinery and fermentation tanks.
The alcoholic fermentation was carried out at a controlled temperature and maintained around 28-29°C. The macerations were managed for approximately 11-13 days for the Merlot and approximately 15-16 days for the Cabernet Sauvignon.
The malolactic fermentation started spontaneously at the end of October. At the end of the malolactic fermentation, the musts were decanted to eliminate sediments and maintain maximum cleanliness.
Winery
In the 1920s the Marchese Mario Incisa della Rocchetta dreamt of creating a new wine, that would be able to compete with the best Bordeaux.
By 1940s, having settled on the Tenuta San Guido he decided to plant Cabernet Sauvignon partly due to the similarity he noted between Tuscan soil and that of Graves in Bordeaux.
The first vintages were not warmly received, and thus from 1948 to 1967, Sassicaia remained a strictly consumed at Tenuta San Guido. After a few years he realized that by ageing the wine it improved considerably. It was not until 1968 that Sassicaia was first commercially released.
Over the next few years, the cellar was moved to a temperature controlled location, steel fermentation vats replaced wooden vats, and French barriques were introduced to the aging process.
