Snapshot of a Super Tuscan

• Autores: Louis Laforgia
• Localización: Australian and New Zealand grapegrower and winemaker, ISSN 0727-3606, Nº 491, 2004, págs. 14-15
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Tenuta San Guido (Estate of San Guido) produces a Super Tuscan, the Sassicaia, which is a blend of 85% Cabernet Sauvignon and 15% Cabernet Franc. A Super Tuscan is a Tuscan wine that has a Government classification but is outside the Chianti region, and therefore can be made from grape varieties other than Sangiovese.

    The Marquis Mario Incisa Della Rocchetta experimented with grape varieties on his estate and found that he preferred the Cabernet Sauvignon variety which he planted in 1944 along with a little Cabernet Franc.

    Accustomed to the lighter local wines, consumers did not respond well to the first vintages of the Sassicaia (Tuscan dialect for ¿stony ground¿). Wines made from the more complex Cabernet Sauvignon take more time to mature and develop.

    Subsequently, from 1948 to 1960 the Sassicaia was consumed only on the estate. As the years went by the Sassicaia wines developed greatly in the bottle and soon, there was a clamouring for this revolutionary style of Italian wine.

    The 1968 vintage of the Sassicaia was the first to be offered on the open market. It has become so highly regarded it was granted its own D.O.C. in 1994 (D.O.C. Bolgheri Sassicaia). Driven by the principles of the European Economic Community, Italy has undertaken to control and classify its wine labelling. Hence the D.O.C. system or Denominazione D¿Origine Controllata, guarantees the origin of the wine.