GUIDALBERTO 2019
Tenuta San Guido is much better known by the name of its most famous wine: Sassicaia. The estate is located in the Tuscany region of Maremma, Italy, and has its own single-estate DOC appellation (Bolgheri Sassicaia) applied to its flagship wine. Sassicaia, one of the original Super Tuscan wines, is made from Cabernet Sauvignon with a small amount of Cabernet Franc. The grapes that go into making Sassicaia are picked just before reaching full maturity, which contributes to the finesse and fragrance as well as to lower alcohol content. After two weeks of fermentation in stainless steel tanks, the wine is aged for around 24 months in French oak barrels, of which around 20% are new.
Tenuta San Guido also makes Guidalberto and Le Difese from declassified fruit from Sassicaia and other vineyards on the estate; these two wines are classified IGT Toscana. In collaboration with the Santadi Co-op, the estate also owns Agricola Punica in Sardinia.
Guidalberto is the second wine of Tenuta San Guido. The 2019 is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon (60%) and Merlot (40%). The manual harvest began with the Merlot in the first days of September followed by the Cabernet Sauvignon from mid-September to the first week of October. The bunches and grapes are manually sorted before a soft pressing and destemming of the bunches to avoid breakage of the berries and excessive release of tannins. The alcoholic fermentation took place in stainless steel tanks without addition of external yeasts. The maceration lasted 10 to 13 days for the Merlot, and 13 to 16 days for Cabernet Sauvignon with frequent pumping overs to obtain more balanced musts and favour the aromatic extraction. Following the malolactic fermentation that is also carried out in stainless steel vats, the musts are transferred to French and a small extent of American barriques for a period of 15 months.
Grape varieties: 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Merlot