Sassicaia's little brother

In common with most wine enthusiasts I’ve heard of Sassicaia but don’t know much about it beyond the fact it’s an expensive Italian wine. So offered the opportunity to buy a bottle of Le Difese from the producer of Sassicaia I thought I’d do some investigating. And where does the other wine – Ornellaia – that’s usually mentioned at the same time fit in?

Sassicaia was one of the first Italian reds made in the image of Bordeaux. Vines were planted in 1948 in the Bolgheri region of Italy as it was noted that the gravel was similar to the Graves region. However the wines did not receive much attention initially. They were seen to be too different - not Italian like brunello or sangiovese - but in 1968 things began to turn more positive as the wine received reviews worthy of a top end Bordeaux. This led to changes in the winery with the introduction of wooden fermentation vats to replace the steel ones and the use of French barriques, an unheard of innovation in Italy at that time. Things then only went from strength to strength and the rest is history as they say. Today it has its own DOC an indication of the prestige in which it is held.

So what was the Le Difese 2008 like? It's a cabernet/sangiovese blend using declassified Sassicaia grapes but made with much of the attention to detail the more expensive wine has had. Detailed tasting notes are up on Adegga but I was impressed. Let’s just say it cost me £16 or so and was worth it and it makes me want to buy a bottle of the.Guidalberto which is Sassicaia's second wine. I don’t think I’ll stretch to the Sassaicaia itself at £109 through The Wine Society however.

I also have a bottle of Le Volte 2007 which is Ornellaia's second wine the story here being much the same as Sassicaia's but more on that in another post.