Mario Incisa had two great passions in life: one was the breeding of thoroughbred racehorses; the star of his Razza Dormello Olgiata stable was Ribot, nicknamed ‘Il Cavallo Super’ (Super Horse), winner in consecutive years of the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, and sire to a long list of champion racehorses. It’s no wonder Ribot was voted Horse of the Century in an Italian poll.

The second passion of the Marchese was to produce a world-class Bordeaux-style wine. Sassicaia was not commercially available at first, being intended only for his family and friends, but following the encouragement of wine critic Luigi Veronelli, he enlisted the help of his son Nicolò and his nephew, Marchese Piero Antinori, to market and distribute it, and Giacomo Tachis was called in to advise.

Giacomo Tachis was the winemaker to the Antinori family, who had studied under Émile Peynaud, gaining an understanding of the use of oak in refining the qualities of tannins. Later on, of course, he went on to develop Tignanello and Solaia for Antinori. Not long after Tachis retired, the control of winemaking passed to Carlo Paoli, who, with his team, has taken Sassicaia from strength to strength. 

Having tasted a few verticals of Sassicaia with Paoli from the 1977 to the current 2019, I feel the wines are getting better and better. There is more precision, detail, and transparency in the flavors and aromas, and the tannins are becoming ever more seamless and refined. It is a remarkable achievement to maintain the quality of a wine that has become a legend but to continue to improve it, and to do this in the face of the very erratic vintage variations seen in recent years is exceptional. 

Paoli feels that one of the big advantages he has with Sassicaia is the ability to select grapes from over 100 hectares of vineyards at several different altitudes and locations, to make a relatively small number of bottles (approximately 250,000- 280,000). Some of the grapes that do not make it into Sassicaia are used to produce two other wines: Guidalberto, a Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot blend (60%/40%) which has an accessible, early drinking style, and “a young soft wine” called Le Difese, a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Sangiovese. 

The original Sassicaia vineyard, Castiglioncello, was planted by Mario Incisa in the 1940s. It is about 400 meters (1300 feet) above sea level and is surrounded by thick woods. “The vineyards are located on soils that are partly composed of gravel and stones, therefore fresh,” explains Paoli. “The surrounding forest (Mediterranean ‘macchia’) and undergrowth provide humus that favors the production of humidity at night, while the trees provide shelter from the hot summer winds and sun—ideal conditions for a good difference in temperature between night and day.”

Other vineyards are lower and nearer the coast or have stony, free-draining soil, which gives Paoli and his team an advantage in wetter vintages. Even so, since 2011, Paoli has encouraged grassing between the rows to help protect the soil against excessive heat and water evaporation in dry vintages or, conversely, to protect against excess rainfall in wet vintages as the grass helps to absorb water and prevent erosion. 

Yet great wines require constant attention to every detail. The official minimum oak-aging requirement for Bolgheri Sassicaia DOC is 18 months, but between 1999 and 2005, the time spent in oak was between 22 and 24 months, while now it has increased to 26 to 27 months. This extra time results in a greater refinement of the tannins. Also, as a response to climate change, Paoli has reduced the quantity of Cabernet Franc in the blend from 15% to 10%, as Cabernet Franc can struggle to ripen fully in recent hotter and drier vintages. He is also considering reducing the number of bottles of Sassicaia that are produced. 

These small but significant details will ensure that only the very finest quality grapes continue to go into these precious bottles.