Tenuta San Guido, Sassicaia Bolgheri 2014

robert_parker89

Reviewed by: Monica Larner

Tasted from barrel, the 2014 Bolgheri Sassicaia is at a very awkward stage in its infancy. I won’t venture in unfounded conjecture, but I will try to describe what we can ascertain from the wine at this young stage. The fruit is weak in intensity and the wine’s color is a very light garnet hue. At great risk, the Marchese Incisa della Rochetta decided to put off harvest as long as possible. This was a cool and damp year that presented a big challenge to fruit ripening. Fruit came off the vines the last week of September, but sugar (and alcohol) readings had a tough time rising. The wine shows delicate tones of violets and wild berry. At the time of my tasting, it had only been in barrique for ten days. I doubt this wine will ever have the structure or complexity of other recent vintages.

robert_parker93

Reviewed by: Monica Larner

This is my official review of the 2014 Bolgheri Sassicaia after having been graciously invited to the estate for various barrel samples spanning back several years. I have watched the evolution of this wine with a close eye and am impressed by how its real quality is diametrically opposed to the poor expectations of this difficult vintage. The nose is redolent of bright fruit and blackberry. Spice, tar and leather appear subtly at the back. The wine took on considerable weight each year I came back to taste it and this vintage was bottled earlier than average, precisely to give it more time to unwind and relax in the small confines of the bottle. This is a solid effort for sure and the wine is a stunning example of what it takes to make great wine, even when weather conditions are not in your favor.

robert_parker94

Reviewed by: Monica Larner

Tasted from barrel, the 2014 Bolgheri Sassicaia is shaping up very nicely since I tasted it last year. In fact, it has made reassuring gains in terms of color density, aromatic definition and specifically textural richness. This wine will be released in 2017, but is scheduled to be bottled in November of this year (instead of January 2017) in order to allow it more time to flesh out and integrate in glass. The bouquet shows slightly rustic tones of tilled earth and spice that come on the heels of blackberry and dried cherry. The 2014 vintage is characterized by a late growing cycle. The last day of harvest was October 31. Despite the vintage challenges, primary fermentation and malolactic fermentation were executed without a hitch.

vinous90

Reviewed by: Antonio Galloni

The 2014 Sassicaia is polished and expressive for the year. But it is also quite a bit darker and more concentrated than when it was a young wine. That search for a level of depth in aging that the vintage did not provide on its own also concentrated the tannins, which are a bit out of balance for the structure of the wine. It will be interesting to see if the 2014 gains aromatic expressiveness and layers. Today the wine is at once light in body and also tannic.