Ratings & Tasting Notes:

94 points — Decanter (November 2022)
1999 was a warm vintage with a very hot summer across Tuscany, though not on the scale of 2003 or 2005, and with no rain in spring or summer the harvest came earlier than usual, running from August to mid-September. The reviewer notes the wine was undervalued when it first appeared, coming as it did after the excellent 1996, 1997 and 1998, and was only appreciated later. Today it still looks sprightly and alive, with aromas of sweet grass, hay, spice and the fresh leather of a mature wine, the nose neither oxidative nor tertiary. A spine of fresh acidity gives vibrancy, with lingering, fine, grainy tannins. Aged very gracefully, mature and drinking now.

93 points — International Wine Cellar (January 2011)
Very deep ruby to the rim. Musky aromas of dark plum, blackcurrant and tobacco leaf, then juicy, intense and sharply delineated, with lovely lift to flavours of dark berries, minerals and cedar. A wonderfully balanced wine whose sound acids leave an impression of great clarity and cut alongside a fresh, lightweight mouthfeel. Finishes with silky, suave, spreading tannins and a very intense, persistent saline mineral element.

93 points — Wine Spectator (James Suckling, 2009)
Classic Sassicaia, with mineral, fresh mint, berry and plum jam aromas. Full-bodied, with silky tannins and a long finish — beautiful and racy, berried and minty. Suckling notes on retasting that he had underrated the wine originally and that it was starting to come around. Tasted non-blind.

Cult Wines International Notes:

Tenuta San Guido sits on the Tuscan coast at Bolgheri, where Mario Incisa della Rocchetta planted Cabernet Sauvignon in the 1940s after noting that the gravelly soils resembled those of Graves. For two decades the wine was made only for the family table. The 1968 was the first vintage released commercially, distributed through his cousins at Antinori, and with Giacomo Tachis consulting it quickly became a sensation. At a 1978 Decanter tasting in London the 1972 placed first against thirty-three Cabernets from France and California. In 1994 Sassicaia was granted its own appellation, Bolgheri Sassicaia — still the only single-estate DOC in Italy — and it remains the wine that created the Super Tuscan category.

1999 was a warm year in Tuscany with a very hot summer, though not on the scale of 2003 or 2005, and with no spring or summer rain the harvest ran early, from August to the middle of September. The wine was undervalued on release simply because it followed 1996, 1997 and 1998, and it has quietly outgrown that reputation. It remains deep ruby to the rim and reads as sprightly rather than tired: sweet grass, hay, spice and fresh leather alongside musky dark plum, blackcurrant, tobacco leaf, cedar and a tarry edge from the more generous oak regime of the period, meshed with blackberry and cinnamon. The nose is neither oxidative nor tertiary. A spine of fresh acidity gives vibrancy and cut, and the finish is silky and spreading, with fine, grainy tannins and a persistent saline mineral note. Fully mature, drinking now, and by every recent account aged very gracefully.

Bottle Size:

750 mL

Storage History:

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

Condition:

This bottle came to us as part of an original six-bottle case (photographs provided). As the case images show, the underside of the box carries dark staining across the floor boards, while the upper portion remains clean and unmarked — the signature of moisture drawn up from below over many years in a cold, humid cellar. The three bottles that lay in the upper tier emerged with their labels intact; those resting on the case floor did not. On this bottle the label paper had grown damp enough to adhere to the glass, and separated unevenly when the two came apart, leaving the mottled surface loss visible in the photographs. The marking is cosmetic and confined to the label. The producer line and the importer detail all remain legible, the capsule is undisturbed, and the wine itself is unaffected.

Bottle is generously discounted $100 just due to the label.

Please note: The photos represent the exact bottle being sold.

The empty box IS NOT included for sale in the listing.