Tenuta San Guido - Toscana

Toscana

Tenuta San Guido

As a student in Pisa during the 1920's, the Marquis Mario Incisa della Rocchetta dreamed of creating a "noble" wine. Like most of Italian aristocracy at the time, his taste in wine ran strongly to fine Bordeaux.
After settling with his wife, Clarice, into their Tuscan estate at Tenuta San Guido on the Mediterranean Coast, he experimented with several French grape varieties and concluded, “the bouquet I was looking for” was found in the Cabernet.
A wine that had Cabernet Sauvignon as its primary component represented a radical shift from the traditional Tuscan and Piedmontese varietals of Sangiovese and Nebbiolo. No one had ever considered making a wine crafted along Bordeaux lines on Italian soil, much less in a region not yet established viticulturally.
However, accustomed to the light, local wines, consumers did not respond well to the first vintages of Sassicaia. Wines made from the more complex Cabernet Sauvignon grapes take more time to mature and develop. Subsequently, from 1948 to 1960, Sassicaia was consumed only at the estate.
Each year, a small number of cases were laid down in the cellars of Castiglioncello.
The Marquis discovered that as the years went by, however, the wine greatly improved. As is often the case with wines of great pedigree, those things originally considered defects turned into virtues over time. Soon, friends and relatives were urging him to pursue his passion and to perfect his revolutionary style of winemaking.
In 1965, he planted two more vineyards comprised of Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc; the new “Sassicaia” vineyard was situated approximately 800 feet lower than the original Cabernet vineyard near Castiglioncello.
“Aianova” was slightly more elevated and thus exposed to the weather. Eventually, all of the wine produced on the estate came to be known by the name of Sassicaia.
The 1968 vintage of Sassicaia was the first to be offered on the open market, and it was as well received as the Premier Crus from Bordeaux. In subsequent years the cellars were moved to temperature-controlled quarters, wood fermentation vats were replaced with stainless steel ones, and French oak barriques were used for the ageing process.
The Marquis’ use of Cabernet grapes and his implementation of the barriques aging process soon spread throughout Italy. Sassicaia was the first Italian wine to successfully establish itself abroad, and is almost universally recognized as the father of the new Italian wine family or simply the Super Tuscan Pioneer. Mario Incisa della Rocchetta’s planting is now considered the birthplace of Italian Cabernet.
The new plantings and improved methods of vinification produced stunning results, and experts worldwide took notice. Here are a few examples:
At a 1978 “Decanter Magazine” tasting in London, a panel including Hugh Johnson, Serena Sutcliffe, and Clive Coates declared the 1972 Sassicaia the best Cabernet Sauvignon in a field of 33 wines from 11 countries.
Hugh Johnson’s Pocket Wine Book, 1982 edition, called Sassicaia "Italy's best wine". The 1982 Sassicaia received the 1987 Vinarius Wine of the Year award.
The marquis Mario Incisa della Rocchetta passed away in 1983. His son, Marquis Nicolò Incisa della Rocchetta, now oversees all estate operations.

The Winery
For many years, Sassicaia’s winery was located in Castiglioncello, the highest point on the estate. Castiglioncello was a good location for the initial vineyards.
They were few in number and near the old castle, however, as demand for the wine grew the winery needed to expand. New vineyards were being planted in diverse areas over the estate, necessitating a more central and accessible location.
In the 1960’s, the winery was moved and is now situated on the cypress allée made famous by Giosuè Carducci, opposite the church of San Guido.

The Vineyards
The vineyards of Tenuta San Guido which add up to about 75 hectars, are placed in different areas due to the special terroir's features.
The vineyards of Castiglioncello, Doccino and Quercione are on the edge of the woods at an altitude of 200 to 300 meters above sea level.
The vineyards of San Martino and Mandrioli are just below the hills in the center of the estate and the vineyards of Sassicaia and Aianova are situated even lower at an altitude of 80 meters above sea level.
The climate, influenced by the proximity of the sea and by the hills surrounding the vineyards, which protect them from winds, has a very strong influence on the correct and healthy maturation of the grapes.
The vineyards planted as "cordone speronato", produce about 5000 kg of grapes per hectare. The grape varieties are divided into 85% Cabernet Sauvignon and the remaining 15% Cabernet Franc.
The harvest normally begins in the first two weeks of September.
The alcoholic fermentation goes on for 12-14 days, followed by the malolattic fermentation which is over by the end of October.
The wine is aged in French oak barriques - in the case of Sassicaia for 24 months and in the case of Guidalberto for 12 months. It is then bottled and kept in our cellar for 6 months before its arrival on the market.

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Family History

Family History
The Incisa della Rocchetta family, that today produces Sassicaia, was a key player in the medieval and renaissance history of northern Italy.
The fief of Incisa a substantial part of the large Aleramic domain (the Incisa descend from Aleramo, one of the largest landowners of the Holy Roman Empire) went from the river Pò to the sea. The 250 square kilometers fief was rich in fortified hamlets. Its right of coinage proves the independence it enjoyed.
The economy thrived on commerce and agriculture. Incisa, in particular, prospered on viticulture: since roman times its name indicated a territory well suited for vineyards.
But the little state was caught in the midst of contentions between fiefs to gain power in the north of Italy.
The fortress of Incisa was put under siege and conquered in June 1514 by the troops of the marquis of Monferrato, and by the mercenaries of the cardinal Mattias Schinner.
One branch of the family that survived had chosen to live peacefully in Rocchetta since the twelve hundreds, dedicating itself to science, law and agronomy.
In the genealogy of the family that is of interest to us, Leopoldo Incisa clearly stands out.A high-ranking official of the Austro-Hungarian Empire until 1840, due to a severe illness, he retires still a young man from his administrative career, and goes back to the ancestral home of Rocchetta Tanaro. Here in the family estate, he is able to express his passion for modern agriculture and his œnological knowledge. A few years later he publishes two catalogues of the precious Italian and foreign vines that he collected in the meantime. Today they are a bibliographic rarity and a point of reference to anybody involved in viticulture.
Almost a century later, his great-grand child, Mario Incisa della Rocchetta, a young student in agriculture, will be inspired by those books to first transplant cabernet vines in Rocchetta, and then in Bolgheri.
After his parents, probably Clarice della Gheradesca, heiress to a patrician family ruling over Maremma for centuries, who became his wife on October 18th 1930 (and brought him to Bolgheri) and Federico Tesio, unequaled thoroughbred horse trainer, were the two most important people in Mario' s youth.
Once married, the young couple formed an association with Federico Tesio, whose wife, donna Lydia Flori di Serramezzana had played match maker with Mario and Clarice.
They created the Dormello-Olgiata stud farm, after the names of Tesio's estate on the shores of lake Maggiore, in northern Italy, and the name of the estate that Mario had inherited from his mother, princess Eleonora Chigi, near Rome.
At the end of the second world war, Mario Incisa della Rocchetta and Clarice, moved to Bolgheri where he expanded what had been the training ground for his father in law' s horses. In a few years he turned the large and calm farm that runs from the Tyrrhenian coast up to the 1000 plus feet of Castiglioncello, and beyond, into an estate that includes perhaps Italy's top training ground, and certainly Italy's first private bird sanctuary in 1959. The "Oasi di Bolgheri", as it came to be called, then became Italy's first WWF bird sanctuary in 1967.
Just below the castle of Castiglioncello, he found the "terroir" that he was searching to couple with his cabernet. That was the first vineyard of Sassicaia, the first, and so far only wine in Italy, that has been awarded its own DOC, the "DOC Bolgheri Sassicaia".