Messaggioda cavallo bianco » 19 mag 2026 17:05
The Wine Advocate
RP 98
Reviewed by:
Monica Larner
Release Price:
$600
Drink Date:
2023 - 2050
Tenuta San Guido’s 2016 Bolgheri Sassicaia, a wine that earned a three-digit score upon release, is more closed at the moment, showing an intriguing evolution in the glass as it moves from timid to briefly expressive before settling back into a quieter phase. The bouquet reveals beautiful savory tones with an almost ferrous edge, gaining complexity with elegant citrus accents of bergamot and blood orange that give the wine added articulation. The palate is defined by a delicate touch of fruit sweetness followed by lasting freshness, delivering both poise and power. Produced in a classic, structured vintage on the estate’s coastal Bolgheri vineyards, this is unquestionably an epic wine, though tasted alongside the 2021 and 2023 in this vertical, it yielded a narrow edge to those later vintages on this occasion.
There are great vintages that produce iconic wines, difficult vintages that yield compromised results and, on rare occasions, underdog vintages that exceed all expectations. The 2023 growing season at Tenuta San Guido is a case in point.
Given all the bad news surrounding the 2023 season—the frost, the rain and the downy mildew—I approached the vintage with a healthy dose of skepticism. Those doubts, however, were emphatically dispelled during two visits to Tenuta San Guido in Bolgheri: first in December 2025, before bottling, and again in January 2026, after bottling, to taste the 2023 Sassicaia.
What I discovered was a magnificent wine that excels in intensity, focus and balance. Most importantly, it is profoundly delicious, drawing you in until the last drop.
“The vintage can be summed up in three key words: fruit, salinity and length,” said Tenuta San Guido General Manager Carlo Paoli during our December 2025 tasting.
No one who works in viticulture will remember 2023 as an easy year. This complex and challenging growing season began with mild autumn temperatures following the 2022 harvest, only to be interrupted by a cold front on December 20 that brought rain and wind. The extended winter chill that followed through much of January and February ensured proper vine dormancy.
March then turned warmer and wetter, with the first signs of green appearing in the vineyards—not only for early varieties such as Merlot but also for Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon.
On April 3 and 4, a severe frost event dropped temperatures to minus four degrees Celsius. Vines that had already experienced budbreak were damaged, with Merlot in particular suffering losses.
Spring continued with frequent rain and below-average temperatures. Carlo Paoli recalls still wearing knit sweaters until June 12. Four days later, on June 16, more rain arrived.
“This put us to the test,” he said. Rising humidity and temperatures created ideal conditions for downy mildew, which decimated vineyards in Chianti Classico, Montalcino and parts of Bolgheri.
July and August then brought scorching heat, with temperature spikes exceeding those of 2022. The difference, Carlo Paoli notes, was duration; in 2022, the heat persisted longer, whereas in 2023 it burned hotter and faster.
“In 2022, we applied kaolin four times to protect the leaves from excessive solar radiation, but in 2023, we only used it once,” Carlo Paoli explained.
Additional rain fell on August 11, but these showers proved beneficial, relieving vine stress and allowing phenolic ripeness to develop alongside sugar ripeness. In this respect, the 2023 Sassicaia stands as a textbook example of the two, finding perfect alignment.
Clusters were compact yet loose and deeply colored. At Tenuta San Guido, harvest concluded on October 5, following a period marked by warm days and cool nights—conditions that sent Carlo Paoli back to his closet in search of those knit sweaters.
“The berries were so crunchy, you could see them bounce off surfaces,” he recalled.
Given the many pitfalls of the 2023 season, the risk of error was high, yet the vineyard and winery teams navigated the vintage with skill and precision. The results can be tasted in this truly exceptional bottle.
Published: Jan 29, 2026
E quando lei: "ma te...se i banditi rapissero me e tua madre, per chi avresti più paura?"
"Per i banditi..."