Guidalberto Super Tuscan

Guidalberto Super Tuscan for Italian Village Chicago Team Wine Dinner

For our Sales Kick Off meeting we brought in the global sales team and held a team dinner at legendary Italian Village in Chicago. Working with the IV team we arranged for a private dining room and worked with Wine Director Jared Gelband  to stage the wine course so we could do pre-dinner tasting upon arrival, two reds and a white.

Knowing several of us would likely choose the beef tenderloin special we arranged for some Bordeaux varietal wines that ideally complement the hearty beef with mushroom and marsala wine reduction sauce.

The wine flight:

Parry Cellars Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2013

Tenuta San Guido Guidalberto Toscana IGT 2006

2003 Sottimano Barbaresco Currá Nebbiolo
2015 Monchiero Carbone Roero Arneis Cecu Arneis

I wrote about the Parry Cellars Napa Cabernet in a separate blogpost feature.

Following the Parry we tasted this Super Tuscan from the legendary Sassicaia line which is a blend of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon and Sangiovese.

Tenuta San Guido Guidalberto Toscana IGT 2006

Guidalberto is a second wine from the producers of the legendary Sassicaia. The grapes are harvested and processed in a separate independent cellar facility. The wine is aged in French and American oak barrels and refined in bottle before release.

This was a full-bodied wine with intense red fruit flavor and and elegantly supple texture supported by ripe, silky tannins. The Merlot in the blend is expressed in sweet black fruit with overall aromas of ripe, concentrated berries offset by restrained spicy oak notes. 

The wine is named for Guidalberto della Gherardesca, the great great great grandfather of Nicolò Incisa (pictured below), director of Tenuta San Guido for forty years, son of Mario Incisa, creator of Sassicaia.

Guidalberto lived in the early nineteenth century in Bolgheri. He was a pioneer of modern agriculture, and was famous for having planted the cypress alley that inspired the poet Giosuè Carducci.

The wine was created in 2000 in an experimental use of the Bordeaux varietals Cabernet Sauvignon and a large percentage of Merlot, that had not previously been used much in the area. The objective was also to make a wine that would provide early gratification from being approachable not long after release, at a younger age compared to the flagship Sassicaia.

The fruit for Guidalberto is grown on the Tenuta San Guido estate which consists of 4,500 acres, on 80 acres of vines spread across 8 separate parcels. The two main vineyards are Castiglioncello and Sassicaia, planted between 1965 and 1985, and a 20-acre parcel Aia Nuova. A more recent vineyard, Quercione, was planted from cuttings from the Sassicaia parcel in 1989 and 1990. It is sited on a stony ridge high above the winery.

The blend is reported to be 40% Merlot, 40% Cabernet Sauvignon and 20% Sangiovese.

This was dark garnet colored with medium full body and ripe black berry and black cherry fruits accented by smoke, tar and anise with smooth soft tannins on the finish.

RM 90 points.

This was awarded 92 Points by Wine Spectator James Suckling and 94 Points by Wine Advocate Antonio Galloni.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=523592