Ratings & Tasting Notes:

98 points — Decanter (Jane Anson), February 2018
Anson loved the tingle of tannins, calling it simply beautiful. The florality is heightened, with roses and redcurrant leaf, soft white truffles and the most beautiful rolling tobacco. Supremely elegant — a masculine wine, but one in full “holding open the door” mode, with a nose that keeps opening up and pausing to let you catch up. “We are in libraries, secret passages, you feel the history of the building in this wine.” A testament to its time, and gorgeous enough to make you smile with joy at how good great wine can be. 85% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Cabernet Franc.

92 points — Wine Advocate (Monica Larner), April 2017
Larner called it a little gem, never formally reviewed in the Wine Advocate before, and one of those rare underrated vintages that bring delight and surprise in an important retrospective. It shows a heavy dose of Cabernet Sauvignon typicity but without the astringent medicinal tone or unripe greenness one might expect, delivering instead a bright, balanced, tonic verve driven by the wine’s natural acidity. She had previously paired it with an oversized bistecca alla fiorentina and found the marriage perfect. A difficult vintage in Bolgheri, but the results in the bottle suggest otherwise.

91 points — Wine Spectator (James Suckling), November 1999
A well-structured Sassicaia with plenty of blackberry and dried herb character. Full-bodied, with plenty of ripe tannins and a currant bush and herb finish.

17/20 — Jancis Robinson, February 2010
Again very little sign of ageing in the colour. A distinctive, slightly medicinal nose — herbal, but also dark cherries and olives, and elegant. The dry tannins are perhaps just starting to take the upper hand, but there is dark cherry fruit on the palate and a fresh, surprisingly fluid finish, the acidity holding even against the tannins in the mid-palate.

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, wanting a claret of his own. For a quarter of a century the wine was drunk only by family and friends. The first commercial release, the 1968, appeared in 1971 under oenologist Giacomo Tachis and the counsel of his cousin Piero Antinori, and it arrived as a scandal: a Tuscan coastal Cabernet sold as humble Vino da Tavola. At a Decanter tasting in London in 1978 the 1972 beat all thirty-three other Cabernets from France and California. In 1994 the estate was granted DOC Bolgheri Sassicaia, the only appellation in Italy belonging to a single property.

1996 was a difficult year in Bolgheri, and this is the vintage that quietly rewards anyone who looks past the reputation. Monica Larner called it a little gem and one of those rare underrated vintages that bring delight and surprise. The blend is the usual 85 percent Cabernet Sauvignon and 15 percent Cabernet Franc, aged around 22 months in barrel, half of it new, then a further six months in bottle, fined lightly with egg white and bottled without filtration. Three decades on, expect a deep ruby showing surprisingly little age, with blackcurrant, dark cherry, black olive and dried herb over roses, redcurrant leaf, white truffle and fine tobacco. Full-bodied and structured, with ripe tannins and a bright acid line carrying a fresh, fluid finish.

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.