Winemaker Notes
The olfactory impact is of considerable aromatic intensity: it expands with notes of small, fully ripe red fruits, accompanied by clear balsamic and Mediterranean hints. In progression, typical mineral notes develop. The gustatory impact is austere, of remarkable freshness and of large volume. It develops in a balanced fusion between the broad minerality and the fine and enveloping tannins. Everything is found in the long final persistence that foreshadows a long life ahead.
Goes well with game, as e.g. local preparations of wild boar, roast, braised and stewed red meats, and medium aged cheese.
Blend: 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot, 15% Sangiovese
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Moving to the 2018 Grattamacco, this vintage is more classic in its expression and marked with finesse. While the summer was quite hot, it cooled at the end of August, with 60 mm of rain and an abrupt cold snap that slowed maturity, so they had to be quite patient waiting for the grapes to get ripe. The Sangiovese is very important in this vintage for its acidity. In the glass, it pours an almost identical, perhaps slightly more youthful red brick color, and it’s fresh and pretty on the nose, with a detailed perfume of fresh herbs, flowers, cherries, and redcurrants. The palate is refreshing and more vertical but not lacking ripeness, with fine tannins and a spine of refreshing acidity. Its characteristic saltiness frames the wine as it floats off the palate, with a mintiness on the backplate.
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James Suckling
With a nose is more lifted and driven by Sangiovese, the 2018 Grattamacco is fresh with menthol, pine, and red cherry. The structure lends more to the medium-bodied side, with a linear feel, but the wine is fantastic for its elegance and transparency. It reveals a cooling wet stone minerality and texture, with vibrant energy and fine tannins, and it is savory with dried herbs on the finish.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Coming on the heels of the scorching hot 2017, this vintage started off with lots of rain in April and May that required preventative measures against fungal disease. Splendid heat and sunshine marked the summer months, but the freshness you taste in this wine is a beautiful characteristic of this cooler growing season. The 2018 Bolgheri Superiore Grattamacco reveals a finely nuanced bouquet with dark fruit, tobacco, smoke and earthy garrigue or underbrush. The wine leans toward full-bodied, but it also feels quite elegant and crisp on the streamlined finish.
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Wine & Spirits
This wine is packed with pure flavors of blackcurrant and raspberry buoyed by brisk acidity. A blend of cabernet sauvignon with 20 percent merlot and 15 percent sangiovese, Grattamacco aged in French oak barriques, about one-third new, where the lightly chewy tannins developed, giving shape to the bold, primary frut tones. The wine takes on notes of graphite and fresh tobacco, while lively spices energize the fruit, drawing out the flavors on a long, exuberant finish.
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Wine Spectator
A mix of coffee and black olive flavors shade the core of black currant and black cherry in this dense, linear red, which is focused and long, with a mouthwatering finish. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Sangiovese. Best from 2024 through 2040.
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.