Sassicaia, Tenuta San Guido 2020

A fabulous nose, rich and elegant with gentle spicing to the delightful blackcurrant fruit. Elegant and refined on the palate, linear and very typically Sassicaia, very fine, savoury fruit, rapier-like acidity, fine and grippy tannins all show that this is a wine built for the long haul. The finish is long and beautifully balanced. A real coiled spring of a wine or an as-yet unopened flower bud waiting to show its beauty and charm. Priscilla says it will need another ten months or so to begin to show, but if you can give it twenty years, so much the better! 

In late March, frosts damaged the earlier-developing Cabernet Franc, reducing production but superb quality fruit. Spring was mild, and summer was generally warm, but a rapid acceleration of maturation in late summer forced the team to begin picking in the first week of September to avoid overripeness. A traditional 85% Cabernet Sauvignon and 15% Cabernet Franc blend, its blackcurranty, dusty, leafy and cedary character is brought into focus by an intense and balsamic palate.

It’s poised and light on its feet with super-fresh acidity and a fine-grained, almost imperceptible tannic structure. Ripe and tangy raspberry and blueberry fruits linger in the mid-palate, leading to a long, fresh finish with cream and chocolate notes. This will reward cellaring into the 2050s, yet you’ll get plenty of pleasure from it in its youth. ‘We advise to keep it at least ten months in the bottle before opening,’ states third-generation Priscilla Incisa della Rocchetta.