Appellation · Tuscany
Bolgheri.
Tuscany’s coastal Bordeaux outpost — Cabernet, Merlot, and Cabernet Franc on warm gravelly soils, and the birthplace of the Super Tuscan movement.
Geography
Bolgheri sits along the Tuscan coast in the southwestern part of the region, about 90 miles southwest of Florence. The area was historically considered marginal for serious wine — too warm, wrong soils for Sangiovese — until the 1960s, when the Marchese Mario Incisa della Rocchetta planted Cabernet Sauvignon on the estate that became Sassicaia. The soils are predominantly gravelly alluvial deposits — closer in character to Bordeaux’s Médoc than to anywhere else in Tuscany — and the maritime climate is warm but tempered by the Tyrrhenian Sea.
The classifications
Bolgheri DOC was created in 1994 to formally recognize the area’s serious wine. Bolgheri Sassicaia DOC was created in 2013 — a single-estate appellation for the Sassicaia label, the only such single-estate DOC in Italy. Beyond these two formal designations, Bolgheri produces some of the most expensive Italian wines under producer-specific labels: Sassicaia, Ornellaia, Masseto (the Merlot-only Ornellaia stablemate from a single iron-rich clay parcel), Solaia (technically not Bolgheri-based but stylistically related).
Style of the wines
Bolgheri reds are Cabernet-Merlot-Cabernet-Franc-Petit-Verdot blends in the Bordeaux template, with some producers also using Syrah. The wines have the structural Cabernet backbone of a serious Bordeaux but with the riper, more concentrated fruit of warm-climate Tuscan terroir. Black cherry, cassis, dark plum, cedar, graphite, sweet baking spice, sometimes a Mediterranean herbal lift. Tannin is firm; alcohol typically 14-14.5%.
How they age
Top Bolgheri from a great vintage ages thirty-plus years. Sassicaia from the legendary 1985 vintage drinks remarkably today. Ornellaia, Masseto, and the second-tier Bolgheri properties cellar similarly to top Bordeaux. The 2019, 2016, 2015, 2010 are excellent modern vintages.
Producers we know
Tenuta San Guido (Sassicaia), Ornellaia (also Masseto, technically a separate estate), Tenuta dell’Ornellaia, Le Macchiole (Paleo, Messorio, Scrio), Grattamacco, Tenuta Argentiera, Guado al Tasso.