The Truth About Super Tuscan Wines | 5 Must-Have Producers

In this video, I'm discussing Super Tuscan wines. I'm going to start out by discussing the story behind the Super Tuscan wines, as well as some background information regarding wine production in Tuscany. Then I'm going to identify and discuss five of my favorite producers of Super Tuscan wines, and discuss some of the wines that they produce and my thoughts regarding those wines. The Super Tuscan story begins shortly after World War II, when Mario Incisa della Rocchetta, who was an agronomist by trade, He moved to Bolgheri, Italy to live on a property that his wife had inherited. This property's name? Tenuta Sanguido. Mario was interested in planting lots of different things on his property, including a variety of fruit trees, but also grapes for wine production. Mario was familiar with the Sangiovese that was being produced in Tuscany at the time, but not only was that Sangiovese largely uninspiring, but those Sangiovese grapes were not well suited to the coastal climate in Bolgheri. Consequently, Mario decided to go to Bordeaux to visit some family friends at Mouton Rothschild. Mario stayed with Mouton Rothschild and learned how to make wine. Once he returned to Bolgheri, he decided that his vineyards needed to be a little bit more inland and also on stony soils. So he found a spot that was well suited to the production of wine-making grapes that was about 400 meters above sea level and had very very stony soils, much like those in Bordeaux. Mario named this vineyard Sassicaia, which means area of many stones. Mario began producing wines for personal consumption in 1945, and that continued through 1967. It wasn't until the mid-60s or so that Mario began consulting with a winemaker for Antinori. These discussions with Antinori's winemaker eventually led to the production of the first first commercial release of Sassicaia in 1968 In 1978, just 10 years later, Decanter Magazine had a wine competition that included a number of the top Cabernet-based wines, including the 1972 Sassicaia, but also 33 other wines from 11 different countries. The winner of this competition? The 1972 Sassicaia. Then, about a decade later, the 1985 vintage of Sassicaia received a 100-point score from well-known critic Robert Parker. who compared the wine to the 1986 Mouton Rothschild, which is an absolutely tremendous wine. Like the Mouton Rothschild wines, the Sassicaia wines were predominantly Cabernet Sauvignon, but also included a little bit of Cabernet Franc, most vintages. Meanwhile in 1971, Piero Antinori began trying to improve his Chianti Classico by adding Cabernet Sauvignon to the blend. Even though the result was a wine with better quality than he made previously, He was no longer able to label this wine a Chianti Classico. Instead, he had to use the very lowest classification possible, table wine. Undaunted by this labeling challenge, Piero Antinori called this wine Tignanello and began continuing to refine his blend. Why did high quality wines like Sassicaia and Tignanello have to use the lowly table wine designation? Well, back in the 1960s and 70s, the Italian wine industry was much different than it is today. At the time, it was focused largely on production output and not so much with quality. In Chianti, for example, to use the Chianti DOC designation, producers had to follow a fairly rigid formula. They could use no more than 70 percent Sangiovese in their blend. And they also had to include a minimum of 10-30% of white grapes, such as Malvasia or Trebbiano, in their red wines. But the result was that the regulations were quite stifling, they prevented winemakers from experimenting, and they hindered quality improvements as well. Wines like Sassicaia and Tignanello were incredibly successful and found favor with critics. However, critics thought it was incongruous to refer to these high-quality wines as table wines. As a result, the term Super Tuscan was coined to refer to high quality Tuscan wines that were not made in strict accordance with the DOC requirements. As the popularity of Super Tuscan wines continued to grow, the Italian government recognized the need for more flexibility with the wine regulations. So in 1992, they came out with the IGT designation. This designation allows for greater flexibility for wine producers, and pretty much the only requirement is that the grapes that are used in the wine come from the region that's stated on the label. With that by way of background, I'm ready to discuss my five favorite producers of Super Tuscan wines. These producers can be broken down into two general categories. The first category of producers is those that make wine largely from international grapes like Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and so forth. Many, but not all, of these producers are located in the Bolgheri DOC near the coast. The second category of producers are those that are located more inland and which make Sangiovese dominant wines or even wines that are 100% Sangiovese. Now some people contend that these 100% Sangiovese wines are not properly considered Super Tuscan wines at all because they don't include any international grapes, whereas other people contend that yes they are Super Tuscans because these are wines that were not made in accordance with the strict historical requirements. I'm not going to take a formal position on that debate, but suffice it to say that for purposes of this video, I'm going to be discussing these Sangiovese-based wines because they're outstanding, collectible wines from Tuscany, and wines that I think that you will enjoy. The first Super Tuscan producer that I'll be discussing today is Tenuta San Guido. Tenuta San Guido makes three wines today that I'll be discussing. The first of which is the legendary Sassicaia wine. This wine is referred to as DOC Bolgheri Sassicaia because in 2014 Sassicaia actually received its own DOC classification. The regulations for the Bolgheri Sassicaia DOC require that the wine be made from a minimum of 80% Cabernet Sauvignon and that the wine undergo a minimum of 24 months of maturation, 18 months of which must be in 225 25 liter oak barrels. Oftentimes the blend for Sassicaia will be around 85% Cabernet Sauvignon, and it's not uncommon for them to include some Cabernet Franc as well, oftentimes around 15% or so. One of my favorite ideas for blind tasting, and one that I highly recommend that everyone try, is to do a blind tasting where you have a wine like Sassicaia mixed in a group with a Napa Cabernet and a Bordeaux wine, ideally from the same vintage. It's quite fascinating to compare these wines, and I found that Sassicaia oftentimes is a middle ground between the Bordeaux and the Napa Cabernet. It will oftentimes have a bit more fruit than the Bordeaux, but it will have higher acidity and more grippy tannins than the Cabernet from Napa Valley. I first started buying Sassicaia and other Super Tuscan wines with the 2009 and 2010 vintages. Not only were these vintages outstanding, but at the time, Bordeaux prices had just gone through the roof, and Napa Valley Cabernet prices were quite high as well. So at the time, many of these Super Tuscan wines, such as Sassicaia, were selling for quite close to a hundred dollars or so, oftentimes around $110 a bottle, and Tignanello was even under a hundred dollars. So certainly excellent values, and also excellent values relative to other wines that were of comparable Unfortunately, however, prices on Super Tuscan wines, and on Sassicaia especially, started to skyrocket shortly thereafter, and now the price of new releases is around $275 or so. Some of my favorite vintages for Sassicaia include 1985, 1996, 2001, 2006, 2009 and 10, 2013, 2015 and 2016, and 2018 and 2019. For those who are interested in getting a feel for the house style of Sassicaia, they do have a second wine that's called Guidoberto and which sells for a much more reasonable price, oftentimes around $50 or $60 or so. This wine is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Sassicaia also has a third wine that's called Lady Faye. This one is even less expensive, and it's meant to be consumed either on release or within the first couple years. This one will cost around $40 to $45 or so. Like Sassicaia, Ornellaia is one of the most prestigious Super Tuscan wines. Ornellaia is located adjacent to Sassicaia and it's in the Bolgheri DOC. Ornellaia was founded back in 1981 by Marchese Lodovico Antinori. Lodovico is the younger brother of Pietro Antinori, who was producing Sassicaia, and his cousin was responsible for producing Tignanello. So Ornellaia was a competitive response to those two wines. The Ornellaia vineyards were planted in 1982, and the first release was in 1985. There's been a lot of drama surrounding the ownership of Ornellaia, and this drama was depicted in a movie called Mondovino, which I highly recommend if you're interested. But basically, in 1999, Robert Mondavi acquired a 50% ownership stake in Ornellaia. Mondavi later acquired the second 50% stake as well, giving it complete ownership. But immediately thereafter, it transferred that 50% interest to Marchese Frescobaldi. Marchesi Frescobaldi subsequently acquired the rest of the ownership interest in Ornellaia in 2005 when Mondavi sold to Constellation. Ever since that time, Ornellaia has been 100% controlled by Marchese Frescobaldi. Ornellaia is another Bordeaux-styled Super Tuscan blend that's primarily Cabernet Sauvignon, but usually includes a decent percentage of Merlot and some Cabernet Franc. And they also planted some Petit Verdot back in the 1990s, which will occasionally make its way into the blend. The 1998 Ornellaia is one of my favorite all-time Ornellaia vintages. That's a wine that won Wine Spectator's Wine of the Year award in 2001, and is still drinking extremely well to this day. I've also enjoyed the 2001, 2006, 2009, and 10, and 2015 and 2016 vintages, but there's many more that are well worth drinking as well. As much as I enjoy Ornellaia, there's a wine produced on the Ornellaia estate that I enjoy even more, namely Masseto. Masseto is produced from Merlot that's grown on a very special seven hectare vineyard on the Ornellaia estate. Masseto is 100% Merlot, And it's absolutely stunning. For those of you who say you hate Merlot, I challenge you to try Masseto and tell me that you don't like it. Masseto reminds me a lot of some of the outstanding Pomerol wines, such as Chateau Petrus. Unfortunately, its price has gone up exponentially and the 2019 vintage is now almost $900 per bottle. Nevertheless, this is a very worthy bucket list wine and one that I highly recommend that you try if you get an opportunity to do so. Potential opportunities to taste Masseto may include events such as the Wine Spectator Grand Tastings, or group tastings that you organize yourself, where you get a group of seven or eight people and purchase a bottle so that you can each try it. Fortunately, however, Ornellaia also makes a very high quality wine that sells for much less than Ornellaia, namely Le Serre Nuove, which sells for around $80 a bottle or so. This is essentially the second wine of Ornellaia, and it's wine that's made from a blend of Bordeaux grapes. This wine has been produced since 1999 and has received critical acclaim in its own right. The 2020, for example, received some 92 and 93 point scores from some well-known critics. So if you're interested in trying Ornellaia produced wines without spending a fortune, you'll definitely want to give this one a try. Ornellaia also produces some other wines including Ornellaia Bianco, which is their white wine, as well as a wine that's called La Volte, and that sells for around $30 a bottle or so. Le Volte is a blend that includes 50% Sangiovese, with the other half coming from a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. This is a wine that's ready to drink on release and that won't break the budget. If you're interested in wine recommendations, wine collecting strategies, and learning more about wine, please do subscribe to my channel. I've been collecting wine for more than 15 years and also have a level 4 diploma from the WSET. So I have both formal certification as well as substantial practical knowledge from the School of Hard Knocks. Of course, you can't have a Super Tuscan video without discussing Antinori. So in this video, I'm going to be discussing three top Super Tuscan wines produced The first of which is Tignanello. by the Antinori family. Tignanello was first produced in 1971 and is widely considered to be the first wine to use Cabernet Sauvignon as a significant percentage of a Sangiovese-based Tuscan blend. The wine was initially created by adding Cabernet Sauvignon to the Chianti Classico blend, but a few years later Antinori also removed all the white grapes from the blend. Eventually the blend stabilized and became largely what it's been for a number of years. 80% Sangiovese, 15% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 5% Cabernet Franc. The Tignanello vineyard is located in Chianti Classico, so the fruit does not come from Bolgheri like Ornellaia and Sassicaia. Tignanello is typically less expensive than those wines as well. While it used to cost less than $100 when I started purchasing it, unfortunately prices have crept up for this wine as well and are now around $130 and sometimes more than that. So it definitely pays to shop around for this wine. After finding success with Tignanello, Antinori next produced a wine that was more like Sassicaia in that it was dominant in Cabernet Sauvignon. Antinori called this wine Solaia, as the fruit for this wine came from the Solaia vineyard on the Tenuta Tignanello estate in Chianti Classico. This wine was also a commercial hit, and in 2000, the 1997 Solaia was the Wine Spectator Wine of the Year. Again, Solaia is quite different from Sassicaia in two ways. First, the fruit comes from Chianti Classico and not Bolgheri, and in addition, the blend is a fair amount different as well. It's not uncommon for the blend of Solaia to be around 75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Sangiovese, and around 5% Cabernet Franc. Unfortunately, prices for Solaia have also been going up dramatically, and this wine now sells for around $300 and up, even for new releases. I find this wine to be a little bit more rustic than Ornellaia and Sassicaia, perhaps due to the inclusion of the Sangiovese fruit, and because the fruit comes from Chianti Classico and not the coast. But Antinori also has a winery that's located in the Bolgheri DOC, namely Guado Altasso. Guado Altasso has been produced since 1990 and is the wine produced by Antinori that's more in a style that's comparable to Sassicaia and Ornellaia. Guado Altasso is a Bordeaux blend that consists of a high percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon, as well as some Merlot and Cabernet Franc, and sometimes a little bit of Petit Verdot. Fortunately, Guado Altasso is a little bit less expensive than some of the other wines that I've been discussing in this video. The new release can be purchased for around $120, so while it's definitely been going up in price, it's still a lot less expensive than many of the other Super Tuscan wines. Montevertine is a producer that's located in the heart of Chianti between Florence and Siena. Montevertine's top wine is a very prestigious wine that's become a bit of a cult favorite, and it's called Le Pergole Torte. At the time it began producing its wine in 1977, It wanted to make that wine from 100% Sangiovese. At the time, however, the Chianti Classico regulations required that they include a percentage of white grapes in their blend. As a result Montevertine said that they were not going to do that and they left the Chianti Classico consortium and went ahead and produced their wine anyway using 100% Sangiovese. Initially this wine was also labeled a table wine, but once the IGT classification came out it became classified as an IGT wine. Le Pergole Torte started out as a single vineyard wine, but since about 1990 it's been a selection of the best fruit from Montevertine. The fruit for this wine comes from some of the oldest vineyards that Montevertine has, some of which were planted as far back as 1968, and the most recent of which were planted in 1999 or so. Le Pergole Torte is typically aged for at least 25 months before it's released, one year of which is in oak barrel, one year of which is in large Slavonian oak casks, and three months of which is in bottle. Unfortunately, the price for this wine is quite high as well, and this Le Pergole Torte wine from Montevertine will cost you about the same amount as Solaia, Sassicaia, and Ornellaia. Located close to Panzano in Chianti Classico, Fontodi's wines are in an area that's referred to as the Conca d'Oro, or the Golden Shell. The fruit for Fontodi's Flaccianello used to come from a specific single vineyard, but it's now a multi-vineyard blend of the winery's best Sangiovese. Like Le Pergole Torte, Flaccianello is a wine that is 100% Sangiovese. This is a This is a wine, too, that's gone up dramatically in price. Even a couple years ago I was able to buy a bunch of the 2010 vintage for around $100, but now new releases are unfortunately closer to $160 or so. I don't have a lot of experience tasting very old vintages of this wine, but I'm a huge fan of the 2010 vintage and also very much enjoy 2015 and 2016. My strategy for this wine is typically to buy larger quantities of this wine as I find sales and in good vintages.