Tenuta San Guido

(BOLGHERI – LIVORNO) Mario Incisa della Rocchetta with the collaboration of Piero Antinori regarding the marketing and consultancy of Giacomo Tachis, gave life to one of the legendary wines that today is a symbol of Italian excellence all over the world, Sassicaia.

The history of Tenuta San Guido wines

The wines of Tenuta San Guido are legendary and seem to have been born in places predestined for the production of wines, like Bordeaux, Burgundy, Rhineland or Langhe.

The famous supertuscan wines owe their success to Mario Incisa della Rocchetta, founder of Tenuta San Guido. Mario Incisa, a Piedmontese entrepreneur who had married the descendant of a historic Tuscan family with immense properties on the coast of the region.

As a good Piedmontese and lover of French wines, Mario Incisa was not particularly fond of local wines and for this reason he decided to plant his own Cabernet vineyards in 1942. The first wines of Tenuta San Guido were, to be honest, not very understood by those who he tasted, but he persevered believing deeply in his project.

The nephew Piero Antinori also believed in Sassicaia who, moved by the great relationship of esteem that binds the two families, decided to support him in his production path towards a commercial start, providing him with full collaboration with the oenologist Giacomo Tachis. Together, they outlined and gave Sassicaia the final touch which, with the 1968 vintage, made its debut on the market with the label that is still on the market today.

When the first vintages of Sassicaia began to appear on the markets, they created a stir and continue to do so. The success of the wines of Tenuta San Guido elevated the fame of Bolgheri which became, from an ignored territory, to the nerve center of many of the best Italian wines. To date Tenuta San Guido, from an initial niche production of Sassicaia has come to produce an annual average of over 200 thousand bottles.

Not everyone knows that the Incisa della Rocchetta were also breeders of famous award-winning racehorses such as the undefeated champion Ribot. For this reason Sassicaia, given its extraordinary personality, can be considered the Ribot among Italian wines.

Tenuta San Guido is today chaired by the son of Mario Incisa della Rocchetta, Nicolò who, with his family, keeps and hands down the company philosophy with passion.

Philosophy of Tenuta San Guido wines

An aspect that distinguishes the philosophy of Tenuta San Guido wines is the idea of creating authentic wines, which become narrators of the terroir of origin, in its pedo-climatic specificities and the climatic trend of the different vintages.

The technical management of Tenuta San Guido’s wines is coordinated by agronomist Nicola Politi and a team including the Marquis Nicolò Incisa, the director Carlo Paoli and other external consultants including Dr. Graziana Grassini.

The idea that guides the production is based on precise choices aimed at enhancing the territorial identity of the wines. For this reason, indigenous yeasts are used for fermentation, meticulously selected from those naturally present on the grapes. The scrupulous agronomic work in the vineyard, the very low yields per vine and the careful manual selection of the grapes are further choices made by Tenuta San Guido, which ensure that only raw materials of the highest quality arrive in the cellar.

If it is true that many successful companies lose their original flair over time, this certainly cannot be said for Tenuta San Guido, whose irreducible philosophy has always consisted in creating wines that are not sophisticated and glossy, but artisanal and authentic.

The Terroir of the wines of Tenuta San Guido

The vineyards from which the wines of Tenuta San Guido are born are spread over 100 hectares with southwest exposure and altitudes ranging from 100 to 400 meters above sea level. The soils are calcareous-clayey, particularly rich in mineral micronutrients, ideal for giving the wines great polyphenolic content, extract and evolutionary potential.

The climate from which the wines of Tenuta San Guido are born is typically Mediterranean, favored by the thermoregulatory action of the Tyrrhenian Sea. The cool sea breeze mitigates the heat by caressing the vines in the summer months, while the wooded boundaries and the hilly altitudes contribute with good temperature ranges, providential for the fineness of the aromas and the perfect ripeness of the grapes.

Wines of Tenuta San Guido

The wines of Tenuta San Guido are born today from about 100 hectares of vineyards and are divided into three different labels: Sassicaia, Guidalberto and Le Difese.

Among the wines of Tenuta San Guido, Sassicaia is obviously the most iconic and is produced from the meticulous assembly of Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc and aged for 24 months in French oak barrels of different passages in order to embellish the aromas with elegant tertiary notes .

Of great interest among the best vintages of this legendary wine we can mention the memorable 1985, 1988, 1998 and the recent 2015, in which Sassicaia was recognized as the best wine in the world of 2018 by Wine Spectator.

Among the wines of Tenuta San Guido, there is Guidalberto, a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot aged 15 months in French oak barriques. Is American. It is a very elegant Tuscan Bordeaux blend, characterized by aromas of ripe berries, balsamic notes and Mediterranean herbs.

Finally, Le Difese, obtained from the assembly of Cabernet Sauvignon and Sangiovese, aged for 12 months in French and American oak barrels. This is the entry wine of Tenuta San Guido, but it fascinates thanks to the complementary combination of the freshness of Sangiovese and the polyphenolic kit of Cabernet.

The wines of Tenuta San Guido are all characterized by an undisputed elegance which echoes the Mediterranean character of Bolgheri. A legendary testimony of the sensational enological potential of Bolgheri and Tuscany.

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