Tenuta San Guido is the Bolgheri estate behind Sassicaia, the original Super Tuscan. The property lies on the Tuscan coast near the medieval village of Bolgheri, where stony, well-drained soils and maritime breezes create an unusually cool, long growing season for Cabernet. The name of its flagship wine—Sassicaia, “place of stones”—is a straight nod to this rocky terroir, which gives the house style its hallmark freshness, graphite nuance and finely etched structure.
The modern story begins with Marchese Mario Incisa della Rocchetta, who planted Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc on these gravelly slopes from the 1940s as a private experiment inspired by Bordeaux. After decades refining the approach, the first commercial Sassicaia was the 1968 (released in 1971). The estate’s discreet precision—parcel selection, gentle extraction and maturation in French barriques used as a frame rather than a flavour—aims for perfume, proportion and longevity over sheer power.
Vineyards run from the foothills down towards the Tyrrhenian, with altitude and exposure shaping ripeness and tension. Surrounding woodland and Mediterranean scrub help moderate extremes, preserving acidity and aromatic lift. Harvesting is by hand, vinification is lot by lot for clarity, and élevage length flexes with the vintage to keep oak integrated and tannins fine.
San Guido’s range is intentionally compact. Sassicaia remains the benchmark, but Guidalberto (introduced in 2000) and Le Difese (since 2002) offer earlier-drinking interpretations of the estate’s Cabernet-led personality. In recognition of its singular identity, Sassicaia earned its own appellation—Bolgheri Sassicaia DOC—formally established in 2013, a rarity in Italy for a single-estate wine.
For collectors and sommeliers, Tenuta San Guido stands for restraint and detail: Cabernet shaped by stones, sea air and time. The wines are built to evolve, trading primary cassis and violet tones for cedar, tobacco and savoury depth as they age, while never losing the cool, mineral line that defines the estate.
