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93 Wine Spectator
Shows its class. Loaded with fruit. Rich yet balanced, with lots of jammy and plummy character. Full-bodied, with round tannins and a silky finish. Exotic. Sass made excellent wine again in a less than easy year. Best after 2006. 16,600 cases made. JS
85 Robert Parker
Its hard not to wonder what exactly is going on at this famous estate of the Tuscan coast, the producer of Italys first international level Cabernet, and the 2000 Sassicaia is not going to resolve the perplexities. A reasonably fresh but not particularly concentrated ruby in color, its nose is rather evolved, with aromas which seem considerably older than its birth certificate. Medium-bodied and reasonably energetic, it is rather lean on the mid-palate, dry and somewhat tough on the finish. That the 2000 vintage was not a resounding success is anything but surprising, but the last really distinguished Sassicaia was the 1988, which already seems like a blast from the past, a nostalgia trip with little relevance to the present. Whats the problem here? Its anyones guess, but acreage has more than doubled since 1988, and all the wine goes into one mega-cuvee, old vines and young vines, vineyards which have historically given the estates best wine and others with no track record whatsoever. This may be a revolutionary approach, but, if its correct, everyone in Bordeaux is crazy, something I have some difficulty in accepting.
Producer
Tenuta San Guido
Italy’s most iconic wine estate, Tenuta San Guido, has grown even more into their reputation following a recent string of great vintages of the country’s most celebrated wine, Sassicaia. Established in the 1940s, the winery did not present its first commercial release until 1968. By 1985, Robert Parker reaffirmed their reputation, giving the 1985 Sassicaia a perfect score and ultimately putting the estate on the worldwide wine map. The single estate in 1994 became the first ever to receive their own DOC, Bolgheri Sassicaia. Distinction holds true in their production, from their second label, Guidalberto, to their third wine, Le Difese, each wine is unique and impressive in its own way.