Winemaker Notes
Bright straw color. The elegant and expressive nose is dominated by citrus and stone fruits framed by fresh herbs and minerality. Robust and round on the palate with generous concentration of fruits. It tastes rich but is utterly fresh with a persistent mineral-driven finish.
Fresh and robust, this wine is incredibly versatile and has a special affinity to anything with herbal notes (like pesto or salsa verde) or citrus (like ceviche or mussels in a lemon-butter sauce). Ideal with many seafood preparations — from raw oysters to grilled shrimp — and white meats like suckling pig.
Founded in 2002, Sassoregale’s family owned estate is within Italy's Wild Wild West: the Tuscan Maremma; a land where Italian cowboys called "butteri" and wild boars, known as "Cinghiale," roam. This pristine and wild area can be found between the province of Grosseto and the famous hills of Montalcino.
Sassoregale’s bold and untamed soul is represented by the venturous Cinghiale boar that galivants around its vineyards – and placed as an emblem on every wine label. This wine comes from 94 acres of certified organically farmed vineyards, surrounded by a virgin forest, that to this day retains its rugged beauty. This is an area where the light of the Tyrrhenian Sea strengthens the vines, and the sea breeze takes the edge off the strong summer sun.
The wines are crafted with centuries-old methods to ensure the grapes are at a perfect technological, phenolic and aromatic ripeness during harvest, which provides the ideal raw material to produce wines that are both rich and elegant. The winery’s team takes special care in the vineyards to ensure sustainability of the environment, the vineyard and cellar. The equable Mediterranean climate means that the vineyard can easily be farmed using only certified organic products. The result is a wine that is bold with all the aromas and flavors of the Mediterranean landscape.
A fantastic, aromatic white grape that grows with great success in Sardinia, Tuscany and in lesser proportions on the island of Corsica. Somm Secret—Vermentino is thought to be genetically identical to Liguria’s Pigato grape and Peidmont’s Favorita. It comprises a large proportion of the whites in southern France where it is called Rolle.
One of the most iconic Italian regions for wine, scenery and history, Tuscany is the world’s most important outpost for the Sangiovese grape. Tuscan wine ranges in style from fruity and simple to complex and age-worthy, Sangiovese makes up a significant percentage of plantings here, with the white Trebbiano Toscano coming in second.
Within Tuscany, many esteemed wines have their own respective sub-zones, including Chianti, Brunello di Montalcino and Vino Nobile di Montepulciano. The climate is Mediterranean and the topography consists mostly of picturesque rolling hills, scattered with vineyards.
Sangiovese at its simplest produces straightforward pizza-friendly Tuscan wines with bright and juicy red fruit, but at its best it shows remarkable complexity and ageability. Top-quality Sangiovese-based wines can be expressive of a range of characteristics such as sour cherry, balsamic, dried herbs, leather, fresh earth, dried flowers, anise and tobacco. Brunello, an exceptionally bold Tuscan wine, expresses well the particularities of vintage variations and is thus popular among collectors. Chianti is associated with tangy and food-friendly dry wines at various price points. A more recent phenomenon as of the 1970s is the “Super Tuscan”—a red wine made from international grape varieties like Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Syrah, with or without Sangiovese. These are common in Tuscany’s coastal regions like Bolgheri, Val di Cornia, Carmignano and the island of Elba.