Sassicaia, Tenuta San Guido 1997

Dark ruby red. Blackberry, with lots of fresh herb and meat character. Full-bodied, with velvety tannins and loads of fresh fruit and tarragon. Dill flavors on the finish. Textbook Sassicaia that grows in the mouth. Give it a little more time.--1997 Italian blind retrospective. Best after 2009. 12,500 cases made

The bottle served at the vertical tasting was, most unfortunately, thoroughly corked, but I had a chance to taste this wine from magnum and bottle not long afterwards. From the magnum the wine was extremely mineral in flavour. Fine and sumptuous but really well structured. From bottle, it was already possible to think of drinking this wine now, in a fine-boned claret sort of way. Sweet and delicate, and more flattering than most red bordeaux. Delicious.