TENUTA SAN GUIDO SASSICAIA DOC 2019 750ml

The latest release from Tenuta San Guido is the 2019 Bolgheri Sassicaia. The bouquet is up front and very expressive from the get-go. It offers a generous display of crunchy, dark cherry that hints at the extra concentration and fruit weight obtained in the 2019 growing season. This vintage will be remembered for the crisp richness of the fruit and its important textural imprint. It also shows fine elegance, bordering on the ethereal, with berry aromas, tarry earth and brushes of balsam herb or grilled rosemary. Sassicaia always shows an almost-glossy finely knit quality to the polished mouthfeel, and I find it again here next to fresh acidity and firm tannins. Mouthfeel in 2019 is the wine's strongest suit. The 2019 is one of the prettiest and most balanced editions of Sassicaia we've seen this past decade, along with the back-to-back duo of 2016 and 2015. The 2019 marries the precision of the 2016 with the rich fruit weight of the 2015.

Our Italian coverage in 2022 kicks off with the unveiling of one of Italy’s greatest wines: Tenuta San Guido’s Bolgheri Sassicaia. The vintage hitting the market now is the beautiful 2019—a wine that marries some of the best qualities of the very fine and focused 2016 vintage with the fleshier fruit weight found in the 2015.

Last year, Tenuta San Guido celebrated the 50th edition of its iconic wine, Bolgheri Sassicaia, and you can find historic information on the estate in my article about that release (https://www.robertparker.com/articles/hhF68nxgoJwjsqY2c/italy-tuscany-tenuta-san-guido-bolgheri-sassicaia-2018-vintage). For greater context on the wine itself, I detailed my impressions following a full retrospective of Bolgheri Sassicaia (1968-2014) (https://www.robertparker.com/articles/MiFLXv7Xonby3T4eh/italy-tuscany-tenuta-san-guido-bolgheri-sassicaia-retrospective).

The 2019 vintage is a stunner, and what stands out most is the richness and elegant concentration of the mouthfeel. This is a characteristic of the 2019 vintage that was even-keeled in terms of temperature extremes and moisture throughout the vegetative cycle. The 2018 vintage saw alternating periods of wet cold and extreme heat, but the 2019 season was far more harmonious and gradual in terms of climate. The 2019 edition is superior to the 2018 also in terms of its cellar-aging potential.

Similar to the classic 2016 vintage, 2019 saw the cooling effects of sea breezes that are channeled through the Tuscan archipelago directly off the Bolgheri coastline. The unique Bolgheri microclimate is expressed with power, complexity and intensity. A mix of mineral-rich sandy clay loam soils contributes to the vibrant energy of the wine and to the finely textured tannins that hold together the wine’s generous fruit weight.

To conclude, 2019 is one of the great vintages in the modern history of Bolgheri Sassicaia. It is elegant and forthcoming now (although the wine must be given ample time to open), and it promises to withstand the test of time. The 2019 Bolgheri Sassicaia is a wine to collect and keep.