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Tenuta San Guido Sassicaia Bolgheri 2020

97 points | James Suckling

A very perfumed Sassicaia on the nose with forest floor, citrus and deep dark fruits. Blackcurrants. Cedar and black tea. Some balsamic. Pine needles. Full and very succulent. Really long, structured and complete. Tangy and energetic with a linear line of fresh tannins and acidity. Very Sassicaia throughout. Very attractive now in a youthful and vibrant way, but this will be better in three to four years. Try after 2027. (March 2023)

96 points | Wine Advocate

The Tenuta San Guido 2020 Bolgheri Sassicaia speaks to those who seek a more voluptuous, opulent and, ultimately, more accessible wine. This vintage precisely reflects Coastal Tuscany, unlike a more generic “Tuscan” wine from elsewhere in this large central Italian region. You taste the ripeness and soft fruit weight from a coastal appellation with exceptionally bright luminosity and warm Mediterranean offshore breezes. Sassicaia from the cool vintages is a famously reticent or withholding wine in its earliest years, requiring a long lead time before it eases into an ideal drinking window. That’s definitely not the case here.

This wine is beautiful and compelling straight out of the gate, showing a lovely mix of dark fruit, oak spice, balanced freshness, textural richness, soft tannins and an expertly contained 14% alcohol content. The wine’s immediate character is what distinguishes this vintage, and I wouldn’t get too fussed by exaggerated cellar-aging ambitions. The wine awards sheer pleasure in its current form, with dazzling primary fruit and soaring intensity over the near and medium term.Drink 2024 – 2042. (Monica Larner Jan 2023)

18/20 points | Jancis Robinson

Full bottle 1,370 g. In this case, the prototype Maremma Bordeaux blend Cabernet Sauvignon with Cabernet Franc. Canopy was especially vigorous in spring and needed trimming, followed by a warm summer with occasional showers, meaning the grapes ripened more than a week earlier than usual. To retain Sassicaia’s trademark freshness, harvest started in the first week of September and ended in the last week of September with vines on the hills at over 300 m (Vigna di Castiglioncello and Vigna del Quercione). The wine was matured for 25 months in 45% new French oak barrels before going into tank for selection and blending.

Mid crimson; easy to see the bottom of the glass. Intense nose with a hint of iodine. Great tanginess that seems more Tuscan than Bordelais. Long and really builds towards its ample finish. Bone dry. Embryonic but convincing that a fine future lies ahead. Subtle rather than flashy. I wouldn’t guess it was as much as 14%. I aerated it and gave it an hour in a young-wine decanter. Drink 2024 – 2038. (Feb 2023)

97 points | Vinous

The 2020 spent 15-18 days on the skins, followed by 25 months in French oak, 50% new. Production is down about 30% because of selection in the vineyard.

The 2020 Sassicaia is a bold, rapturous wine. Dark, fleshy and expansive on the palate, the 2020 offers scents of blackberry jam, gravel, spice, new leather, liquorice and crème de cassis. The sheer intensity of the fruit nearly buries potent tannins. Sassicaia is never a huge wine; the 2020 does seem to have an extra dimension of textural intensity. It’s an intensity that is hugely appealing. Estate Manager Carlo Paoli describes 2020 as a year with a long, rainy winter and a cold spring. “Temperatures warmed up in the middle of June,” he explained. “July was very hot, but heat moderated in August. Even so, it was a year in which ripeness moved quickly, as opposed to 2021, when ripeness was more gradual. We picked the entire estate in 22 days instead of the 29-30 that is more typical.” Drink 2028 – 2050 (Antonio Galloni Feb 2023)

£1,300.00£2,247.61

Soil Type

The soils have varied and complex features with strong presence of limestone, areas rich in marl and pebbles, as well as partially clay. They are situated at an altitude between 100 and 400 meters above sea level, with a West, South-West.

Weather Trends

Autumn brought abundant rain from mid-October to late December. Temperatures stayed mild, sometimes exceeding seasonal averages. Intense cold arrived in February, nearing 0°C. March began with strong sea winds and rain, but mild temperatures helped early varieties like Merlot develop buds. Late March brought Russian winds, dropping temperatures and causing night frosts. Cabernet Sauvignon was unharmed, while some Cabernet Franc showed slower development on secondary buds.

April and May were mild, with alternating sun and rain, leading to increased vegetation. Agronomists intervened to control plant growth. By mid-June, sunny, warm weather lasted until harvest, interrupted only by rain in July and August. The grapes ripened 7-8 days earlier than usual. Despite higher sugar content, they arrived healthy, fully ripe, and of excellent quality.

Harvest

The manual harvest began in the first week of September with the grapes from the younger vineyards starting from the Cabernet Franc and then continued with the Cabernet Sauvignon from the vineyards located at lower altitudes, ending in the last week of September with those on the hills located over 300 meters above sea level (Vigna di Castiglioncello and Vigna del Quercione).

Vinification

Selection of the grapes through a sorting table, to eliminate impurities and any presence of imperfections. Soft pressing and delicate destemming of the grapes, maintaining the integrity of the berries and avoiding excessive transfer of tannins. The alcoholic fermentation (completely spontaneous and without the addition of external yeasts) was concluded by the end of October and carried out regularly and at controlled temperatures not exceeding 27-28 °C.

Frequent delestages and pumping over allowed for excellent aromatic extraction and freshness in terms of acidity of the musts. The malolactic fermentations took place in steel, at the end of November. In the first week of December, after frequent decanting to clean the musts, the wine was placed in oak barriques.

Ageing

At the end of the malolactic fermentation, the wine was placed in barriques using 45% new wood, 45% first passage and 10% second passage. Sassicaia 2020, after more than 25 months of aging in wood, was decanted into steel tanks before the final blending and then bottling. Subsequent refinement in the bottle before release on the market.

For more information on the Tenuta San Guido wines click here or visit their website here.

Vintage

2020

Varietals

85% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Cabernet Franc

Country

Italy

Region

Tuscany

Alcohol by Volume

14%

Cellaring Potential

15 – 25 years

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