51 years of Sassicaia. 2019 is even more extreme than 2018, an extremely purist, archetypal vintage, unmistakably Tuscany and Maremma and Tenuta San Guido in its purity and expressiveness. You can still sense that the clones originally came from Chateau Latour.
2019 is crystal clear like 2018 but even fresher. The nose is also distinctly influenced by Cabernet Franc, with raspberry, cherry, wildflowers, sweet lavender, rosemary, plum, and a bit of phenolic character from the stems. This is followed by black and green olive, the exact right touch of fresh unripeness and stemmy character that maintains balance (is part of it perhaps not destemmed?), a bit of tar, black cherry, blackberry, cassis. Here it is, the Cabernet Sauvignon from Chateau Latour. On the palate, an incredibly silky mouthfeel follows, with a hint of red bell pepper, again ripe plum, cedarwood, a trace of tobacco, allspice pepper, caramel, a tiny touch of tar and pitch, but dominated by concentrated, sweet red currant. Incredibly dense and vibrant with spicy fullness and at the same time playful silkiness. All of this in a sexy corset, Sassicaia remains enormously focused and concentrated on the palate.
Very long finish, solid pressure on the palate. Brilliant freshness, high acidity. Completely without green bell pepper, fully ripe despite high acidity, with 2018 and even more so with 2019, we come quite close to an ideal Cabernet.
2019 follows or rather precedes 2018 in quality, certainly on the path of the very best years here, great, long-lasting material from Sassicaia’s 51st anniversary year. 100/100
