The 2022 Sassicaia is a very pretty, expressive wine. There’s a bit more Cabernet Sauvignon (and less Franc) in this year’s blend, and that really comes through in the wine’s flavor profile and slightly bruising tannins. Dark cherry, plum, leather, licorice, graphite and incense give the 2022 striking aromatic presence to match its rather brooding personality. There’s a bit of tension in the tannins that needs time to resolve. Yields were down about 20% because of intensely cold weather in spring, variable conditions during flowering and set, and then searing heat and drought throughout the summer.

Terracotta and sour red cherry with dried rosemary, violets, and black olives. The fruit is wrapped around a tight core of baked earth and muscular tannins. Dense and concentrated, there's a real weight to this wine, with the lingering clove-scented earthy finished hinting at a very long life ahead.

The 2022 Sassicaia is a deeper, youthful magenta/red color with a slightly deeper aromatic profile of rosemary, gravelly earth, sage, mossy earth, and fresh black cherries. The palate has slightly broader shoulders but remains elegant. It has more plushness on the mid-palate, while its acidity shines through with the finish. It will need several years to shed its baby fat and show its full potential. Drink 2028-2058.

Several months on from the first taste in the spring, Sassicaia 2022's aromatics have come to the fore. It's really floral and bright, with dense violet-infused back and red berries supported by fine, chalky tannins. There's some very juicy fruit waiting to be released, with a saline and succulent, creamy and chalky background. ‘1998 was one of the best vintages in Bolgheri...for aromatic content, we can compare it to 2022,’ says general manager and production manager, Carlo Paoli.

The wine is tightly coiled and concentrated. It feels almost cinched at the waist, with a fascinating tension between the weight of raspberry, blackberry and strawberry coulis fruit and the wine's verticality, as if it's trying to burst out. Lovely mid-palate sapidity is allied to fresh acidity and fine but dense tannins, making for a dark horse of a Sassicaia that isn't giving much away today but will greatly reward those who can cellar it for 12 years and more. ‘What is sure is that 2022 will need a lot of time, but will also have a long life,’ said Priscilla Incisa della Rocchetta. A hot vintage, 2022 caused the team to work in the newly completed refrigerated warehouses in San Guido, even moving the sorting table inside. Shorter macerations and 23 rather than the more typical 24 or 25 months of ageing in wood helped to maximise the freshness.

The Tenuta San Guido 2022 Bolgheri Sassicaia reveals a beautiful fruit profile with fresh blackberry, tart cherry and Mediterranean tones of blue rosemary blooms and lavender sachet. I tasted this wine several times over the course of a few months, and it has already shown a happy evolution coming into slow focus like the faint colors that emerge from a Polaroid photograph. Indeed, the bouquet appeared more closed just a short while ago. The wine's strongest suit is its elegantly streamlined mouthfeel and its contained 13.5% alcohol content. These qualities add to the silky cleanness of the mouthfeel and the accessible freshness of this vintage. I am confident that this bottle will improve with time. It requires patience.

The tannins are gentle and integrated even now, while still in barrel, and its provides a striking contrast wtih many 2022s from this corner of Tuscany, where concentration is the byword. Sassicaia is able to retain acidity even in the hottest summers, and the balsamic and butterscotch notes are beautifully balanced by rosebuds, lavender, red cherries, rosemary, fennel, charred sandalwood and tomato leaf. The frame is in place, and the density offset by a soft textural caress. Sample taken from three barrels, final wine to be shipped in a few months, after a dry vintage helped by a few rains here just before harvest. 40% new oak for ageing, Carlo Paoli director.

88% Cabernet Sauvignon, 12% Cabernet Franc, harvested throughout September. 13–15 days’ maceration. Aged for 23 months in French oak barriques (225 litres). TA 6.1 g/l, pH 3.45, RS 0.25 g/l. See my earlier note . This bottle presented by a Frenchman! Transparent crimson. Savoury, balsam, appetising nose. Much drier (as opposed to sweet) than the other wines here. Strong French influence on the reticent structure. Lots of fresh tannin currently dominates the fruit but the fruit is pretty nuanced and interesting. But it’s still extremely youthful. The most youthful wine here. Aerate before serving for many years. (JR)