Ratings & Tasting Notes:

98 points — Doctor Wine (Daniele Cernilli), May 2016
Giacomo Tachis’s own favourite vintage, which he considered better even than the 1985. Intensely concentrated, profound ruby colour, not at all what one would expect from a wine of its age. Complex, concentrated aromas with intense and elegant scents of red fruit. Bold, concentrated and full on the palate with sweet tannins, and a pleasing persistence whose after-aroma brings back the bouquet.

97 points — Wine Spectator, July 1996
The brute power of the ’88 brings Château Latour in top vintages to mind. Full-bodied, firm and rock-solid, yet tasting very silky thanks to sensational concentration of fruit. Loaded with mineral, peppery character alongside blackberry and red berry, closing supercharged, intense and long. Named to the Top 100 Wines of 1991.

96 points — Vinous, May 2023
Sublime, though not for those seeking the horsepower of the 1985. Showing little maturity in colour, with a divine, classically styled bouquet — almost Médoc-like, offering dark berry fruit, wild strawberry, cedar and a splash of espresso. Medium-bodied on the palate with fine tannins, beautifully balanced and understated, even restrained, yet conveying an unerring weightlessness allied to composure and stylishness. “Drinking perfectly now.”

18.5/20 — Jancis Robinson, February 2010
Very dark and glowing ruby. Ripe and assertive, almost Right Bank in character, with a hint of meat extract. A sweet start and very lively, with markedly fresh acidity. Racy and sweet yet carrying real distinction and wonderful juiciness, and not too hot on the close. Robinson placed it “on the cusp of ancient and modern styles.”

Cult Wines International Notes:

Sassicaia is the wine that changed Italy. Mario Incisa della Rocchetta planted Cabernet Sauvignon at Bolgheri in the mid-1940s, on stony coastal ground nobody thought fit for fine wine, because he wanted a claret of his own. For a quarter of a century the results were drunk only by his family and friends. The first commercial release, the 1968, appeared in 1971 under the guidance of oenologist Giacomo Tachis and the counsel of his cousin Piero Antinori, and it arrived as a scandal: a Cabernet from the Tuscan coast, ineligible for any real appellation, sold as humble Vino da Tavola. Within a decade it had beaten the world’s great Cabernets in blind tastings and created the category the press named the Super Tuscans. Bolgheri Sassicaia became its own DOC in 1994, the only single-estate appellation in Italy.

The 1988 came at the height of the Tachis era and remains, by his own account, his favourite vintage of the wine — he judged it superior even to the celebrated 1985. Critics have long agreed on its character if not on its ranking: a Bordeaux sensibility applied to Tuscan fruit, restrained where the 1985 was powerful. Nearly four decades on it shows dark garnet with surprisingly little maturity in colour, and a bouquet of dark berry, wild strawberry, cedar, espresso, violet, smoke and cured leather. The palate is medium-bodied and beautifully balanced, with fine tannins, vibrant acidity and a composed, understated finish. Drinking beautifully, and in no hurry.

Bottle Size:

750 mL

Storage History:

Always stored on its side in a climate-controlled cellar.

Condition:

Outstanding condition.

Please note: The condition of the bottle you will receive is accurately reflected by the one shown in the images.