Winemaker Notes
The nose is a combo of dark fruits and chocolate with notes of plum and black currants, elegant and full with a fresh balsamic finish given by the Sangiovese. A dense and powerful wine with ripe tannins, juicy and rich with a striking structure.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A dense and powerful young wine with ripe tannins. Full-bodied, juicy and rich. Striking structure and fruit.
Range: 94-96 -
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2018 Bolgheri Rosso is an organic blend of 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Cabernet Franc, 20% Merlot, 6% Sangiovese and 4% Petit Verdot aged in oak for a brief eight months. Production is an ample 80,000 bottles. This lower-end wine shows more bulk and darkness compared to some of the higher-end Bolgheri Superiore expressions from this producer. However, this wine clearly offers a more immediate and accessible personality with dark cherry, blackberry and more primary intensity. Soft tannins round off the palate. This vintage required extra attention during fruit selection.
Disenchanted with Italian winemaking laws in the 1970s, a few rebellious Tuscan winemakers decided to get creative. Instead of following tradition, to bottle Sangiovese by itself, they started blending it with international varieties, namely Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Syrah in differing proportions and with amazing success. However, some Tuscan Blends don’t even include Sangiovese. Somm Secret—The suffix –aia in Italian modifies a word in much the same way –y acts in English. For example, a place with many stones (sassi) becomes Sassicaia. While not all Super Tuscan producer names end in –aia, they all share a certain coy nomenclature.
An outstanding wine region made famous by Marchese Mario Incisa della Rocchetta, who planted Cabernet Sauvignon vines for his own consumption in 1940s on his San Guido estate, and called the resulting wine, Sassicaia. Today the region’s Tuscan reds are based on Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, which can be made as single varietal wines or blends. The local Sangiovese can make up no more than 50% of the blends. Today Sassicaia has its own DOC designation within the Bogheri DOC appellation.