Description
Find the great 1985 Sassicaia for sale at Arden Fine Wines at Arden Fine Wines in London.
Contact us here with any queries.
Sassicaia broke ground when the 1968 vintage came on the market in the early 1970s.
Marchese Mario Incisa della Rocchetta created Tenuta San Guido Sassicaia.
He was a Piemontese vine-grower who in 1943 moved to the Tuscan estate inherited by his Gherardesca wife.
(She was the sister of Piero Antinori’s mother.)
In those days, friends and family consumed the wine that they produced.
Or they sold it privately, in barrel and in certain years in bottle.
But the reputation, especially of the aged wine, grew.
In 1970, Mario’s son Nicolò managed to persuade his father to call in the Antinori cousins as professionals.
Since then, it has acquired a reputation for having achieved a number of “firsts.”
Experts generally consider it first among Italian wines.
It is half-true that Sassicaia was the first “Super Tuscan”: the 1968 was contemporaneous with Enzo Morganti’s all-Sangiovese Vigorello.
Sassicaia certainly became the first barrique-aged wine of Italy.
It became the first great Italian cabernet.
And it became the first Italian wine – with the 1985 Tenuta San Guido Sassicaia – to receive 100 points from the influential US wine critic Robert Parker.
1985 Sassicaia for sale at Arden Fine Wines
The 1985 Sassicaia from Tenuta San Guido is one of the greatest wines ever produced in the 20th century.
It is the definitive “Super Tuscan”.
The nose has complex aromas of black cherries, ripe plums, leather, tobacco, and sweet spices (cinnamon and clove).
On the palate, it is full-bodied and opulent yet elegant, with silky tannins, bright refreshing acidity, and a long, persistent finish.
My old friend and colleague Nicolas Belfrage, Master of Wine (19 July 1940 – 17 September 2022), tasted the 1985 on a visit to Tenuta San Guido in 2005:
“Described by Parker as unquestionably ‘one of the greatest wines I have ever tasted, from anywhere,’ this is still, 20 years on, remarkably youthful, in colour and in substance. The classic blackcurrant aroma of Cabernet Sauvignon is there, together with the equally classic lead pencil of Cabernet aged in French oak, plus a wealth of herbs, spices, and leather.
There is a remarkable liveliness to the palate, quantities of rich sweet fruit, dense but smooth tannins. A wine of great elegance but even greater youthfulness, of which I noted, with some exaggeration, ‘seems made yesterday’ and ‘freshness is incredible—you’d never get that (and it pains me to say so) with a 20-year Sangiovese.’ I was singing from the same hymn sheet as Mr P.”
Are you looking to purchase a bottle of Sassicaia for a specific occasion, or are you researching the tasting history of this particular vintage?
Or would you like to compare it to other legendary years like 1972?
Finally, you can find this Tenuta San Guido Sassicaia 1985 for sale at Arden Fine Wines in London.
