2021 Guidalberto, Tenuta San Guido, Tuscany, Italy

2021 Guidalberto, Tenuta San Guido, Tuscany, Italy

Product: 20218015675
Prices start from £48.50 per bottle (75cl). Buying options
2021 Guidalberto, Tenuta San Guido, Tuscany, Italy

Buying options

Available for delivery or collection. Pricing includes duty and VAT.

Description

Delightfully vibrant black fruit notes on the nose, fragrant and compelling. Equally as fabulous on the palate, packed with energetic, dark berry fruit, vibrant acidity and the finest of malleable tannins, that’s a fabulous mouthful of wine for the money. Crisp and clean on the long finish, this will drink well straight away and give joy for a decade or more. 

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Chris Pollington, Senior Account Manager, Berry Bros. & Rudd

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Critics reviews

Antonio Galloni, Vinous93/100

The 2021 Guidalberto, San Guido's blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, is soft, succulent and alluring right out of the gate. The supple contours of Merlot lend fleshiness to this mid-weight, racy Maremma blend. Ripe red cherry fruit, spice, leather, and tobacco are nicely pushed forward. Best of all, the 2021 will drink well right out of the gate.

Drink 2023 – 2031

Antonio Galloni, Vinous.com (February 2023)

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Wine Advocate94/100

A classic blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, the Tenuta San Guido 2021 Guidalberto shows tart cherry fruit with darker tones of blackberry and plum. This vintage delivers especially chiselled and focused fruit characteristics that are elegantly framed by light spice, cola and earth. This vintage shows a heightened sense of intensity and territorial identity that is the hallmark of this storied estate.

Drink 2023 - 2033

Monica Larner, Wine Advocate (May 2023)

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Jancis Robinson MW15.5+/20

Full bottle just 1,258 g. This sample has followed hot on the heels of the 2020!

Lively crimson. Far from the most opulent vintage of this little brother to Sassicaia. It's presumably designed to be a little drier and more austere than most Bolgheri Bordeaux blends, but the 2021 takes this to quite a degree. It's like a red Bordeaux of 2021 or the early 1990s! Really a very dry, slightly tart wine. It may well blossom with time.

Drink 2024 - 2030

Jancis Robinson MW, JancisRobinson.com (March 2023)

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James Suckling93/100

Aromas of blackcurrants, dark cherries, chocolate, ground spices and crushed rocks. Medium- to full-bodied with compact but supple and polished tannins. Shows savoury notes with hints of dried mushrooms and chocolate. Attractive with a lingering finish.

Drink or hold

James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com (June 2023)

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Decanter95/100

According to Tenuta San Guido’s director of winemaking, Carlo Paoli, the 2021 is the best Guidalberto he has ever made. The percentage of Merlot was reduced back to the typical 40% this year because the quality of the Cabernet Sauvignon was so good. The 2021 Guidalberto is very deeply coloured, almost black with a narrow purple rim.

It took an hour or so to really open up, but when it did, it had a wonderful range of aromas and flavours. Cassis and blueberry, blue flowers, and violet and iris notes are followed by a palate full of perfectly ripe blackberries and blueberries wrapped in gentle, cream flavours. This is a wine of velvety richness balanced by vivid acidity, with very pure, focused flavours and aromas. Delightful!

Drink 2024 - 2038

Susan Hulme MW, Decanter.com (March 2023)

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Jeb Dunnuck94/100

Displaying a deep, nearly opaque purple colour, the 2021 Guidalberto is fleshy, seductive, and impressively aromatic at this youthful stage, with a floral perfume of crushed violets, boysenberry, and graphite. Composed of 55% Cabernet Sauvignon, 18% Cabernet Franc, and the rest Merlot, it’s one of the most expressive releases of this wine I’ve tasted. Full-bodied, with a bright lift of acidity, it has ripe, tight-grained tannins and a well-coiled structure.

As it opens in the glass, it starts to reveal more earth notes with turned soil. It’s a shame to open this wine early, as it offers very impressive structure and will really start to show at its best 2-3 years after its release. The 21st release of this cuvée (the first vintage was in 2000), 2021 was a fantastic vintage for the region and this wine.

Drink 2025 - 2040

Audrey Frick, JebDunnuck.com (January 2024)

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About this WINE

Tenuta San Guido

Tenuta San Guido

Tenuta San Guido's journey to becoming one of the world's most sought-after fine wines is largely owed to the vision and dedication of Mario Incisa della Rocchetta. The estate's origins trace back to his wife's family, who had owned land in Bolgheri since 1800. The name "Sassicaia," meaning "place of many stones," reflects the gravelly soil reminiscent of the Médoc region in France.

Mario Incisa della Rocchetta planted Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot vines on this land and enlisted the expertise of Piero Antinori's winemaker, Giacomo Tachis. Tachis played a pivotal role in shaping Tenuta San Guido's winemaking philosophy and techniques.

In 1968, Tenuta San Guido released its first vintage, which garnered universal acclaim. Over time, it has become recognised as one of the world's finest Cabernet Sauvignon wines. Notably, Tenuta San Guido made history by being the first single wine to be granted its own Denominazione di Origine Controllata (DOC) status.

The wines of Tenuta San Guido are celebrated for their intense notes of cassis, coupled with a cedary elegance, and are renowned for their extraordinary power and length. This combination of factors has solidified Tenuta San Guido's position as a pinnacle of quality and prestige in the world of fine wine.

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Bolgheri

Bolgheri

Bolgheri is a new DOC in the coastal Maremma region which first rose to prominence during the 1970s with the emergence of the so-called Super Tuscan wines like Ornellaia and Sassicaia. These new ventures had rocked the DOC establishment by using high proportions of Cabernet Sauvignon, opting out of the DOC system and relabeling their wines as simply Vino da Tavola (table wine). 

Having won universal acclaim and exchanging hands for unprecedented prices (higher even than Tuscany's finest examples), the authorities relented and awarded Bolgheri its own DOC. The actions of the Super Tuscans inspired a generation in Italy, even if some of the wines here have lost a little of their lustre since.

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Cabernet Sauvignon blend

Cabernet Sauvignon blend

Cabernet Sauvignon lends itself particularly well in blends with Merlot. This is actually the archetypal Bordeaux blend, though in different proportions in the sub-regions and sometimes topped up with Cabernet Franc, Malbec, and Petit Verdot.

In the Médoc and Graves the percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon in the blend can range from 95% (Mouton-Rothschild) to as low as 40%. It is particularly suited to the dry, warm, free- draining, gravel-rich soils and is responsible for the redolent cassis characteristics as well as the depth of colour, tannic structure and pronounced acidity of Médoc wines. However 100% Cabernet Sauvignon wines can be slightly hollow-tasting in the middle palate and Merlot with its generous, fleshy fruit flavours acts as a perfect foil by filling in this cavity.

In St-Emilion and Pomerol, the blends are Merlot dominated as Cabernet Sauvignon can struggle to ripen there - when it is included, it adds structure and body to the wine. Sassicaia is the most famous Bordeaux blend in Italy and has spawned many imitations, whereby the blend is now firmly established in the New World and particularly in California and  Australia.

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When is a wine ready to drink?

We provide drinking windows for all our wines. Alongside the drinking windows there is a bottle icon and a maturity stage. Bear in mind that the best time to drink a wine does also depend on your taste.

Not ready

These wines are very young. Whilst they're likely to have lots of intense flavours, their acidity or tannins may make them feel austere. Although it isn't "wrong" to drink these wines now, you are likely to miss out on a lot of complexity by not waiting for them to mature.

Ready - youthful

These wines are likely to have plenty of fruit flavours still and, for red wines, the tannins may well be quite noticeable. For those who prefer younger, fruitier wines, or if serving alongside a robust meal, these will be very enjoyable. If you choose to hold onto these wines, the fruit flavours will evolve into more savoury complexity.

Ready - at best

These wines are likely to have a beautiful balance of fruit, spice and savoury flavours. The acidity and tannins will have softened somewhat, and the wines will show plenty of complexity. For many, this is seen as the ideal time to drink and enjoy these wines. If you choose to hold onto these wines, they will become more savoury but not necessarily more complex.

Ready - mature

These wines are likely to have plenty of complexity, but the fruit flavours will have been almost completely replaced by savoury and spice notes. These wines may have a beautiful texture at this stage of maturity. There is lots to enjoy when drinking wines at this stage. Most of these wines will hold in this window for a few years, though at the very end of this drinking window, wines start to lose complexity and decline.