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Some nurture particularly close family ties, and a business serves as a traditional medium for honoring one’s h eritage. With respect to the Antinori and della Rocchetta families, however, viticultural genius truly seems to run in the family, rendering their Bolgheri triptych—Tenuta San Guido (Sassicaia: Mario Incisa della Rocchetta); Tenuta dell’Ornellaia (Ornellaia & Masseto: Lodovico Antinori); and Guado al Tasso (Guado al Tasso: Piero Antinori) a powerful evocation of a wine dynasty. While Piero was technically the last of the family to enter Bolgheri’s Maremma, Guado al Tasso formally established his claim to the Maremma, as it was founded upon land inherited by his mother, Carlotta della Gherardesca Antinori, whose family had a long-standing presence in the region. It is also significant to note that Sassicaia, the premiere Super-Tuscan, effectually served as the philosophical foundation of Antinori’s Tignanello, as brothers Piero and Lodovico (prior to their split [in 1985]), sent Giacomo Tachis to direct the vinification of Sassicaia. Their experience directly informed Tignanello’s conception, validating the application of the Bordeaux model to Italian wine.

Not only is Guado al Tasso the Antinori for those in the know, it is also the flagship of Antinori’s Bolgheri estate—Tenuta Belvedere—a property that, at one time, actually comprised what now constitute the individual holdings of both Tenuta San Guido and Tenuta dell’Ornellaia.

As such, there was profound precedence here for the cultivation of Bordeaux varietals, particularly Cabernet Sauvignon (which had first been planted by Mario Incisa della Rocchetta in 1944). The zone of Bolgheri is particularly conducive to the growth of Cabernet Sauvignon, as the maritime climate provides for the heat that Cabernet requires to sufficiently ripen.

• Country: Italy
• Region: Toscana
• Sub-region/Appellation: Bolgheri Rosso
• Situated in Maremma on the Tuscan coast, 96km south-west of Florence, the Guado al Tasso estate extends from the green hills surrounding the old village of Bolgheri down to the sea. This beautiful plain is called the anfiteatro bolgherese due to the fact that the hills enclose the plains overlooking the sea to form a natural amphitheatre.
• The Guado al Tasso estate is part of the small, prestigious Bolgheri DOC zone which has been famous for its rosé wines since the Seventies: along with the white wines made here, they were awarded the DOC in 1984, which was extended to the reds in 1994. The area is now best-known and admired for its outstanding red wines, the so-called SuperTuscans.
• The estate covers over 1,000 hectares, 300 of which are planted with vineyards, and the rest with wheat, sunflowers and olives.

Some nurture particularly close family ties, and a business serves as a traditional medium for honoring one's h eritage. With respect to the Antinori and della Rocchetta families, however, viticultural genius truly seems to run in the family, rendering their Bolgheri triptych Tenuta San Guido (Sassicaia: Mario Incisa della Rocchetta); Tenuta dell'Ornellaia (Ornellaia & Masseto: Lodovico Antinori); and Guado al Tasso (Guado al Tasso: Piero Antinori) a powerful evocation of a wine dynasty. While Piero was technically the last of the family to enter Bolgheri's Maremma, Guado al Tasso formally established his claim to the Maremma, as it was founded upon land inherited by his mother, Carlotta della Gherardesca Antinori, whose family had a long-standing presence in the region. It is also significant to note that Sassicaia, the premiere Super-Tuscan, effectually served as the philosophical foundation of Antinori's Tignanello, as brothers Piero and Lodovico (prior to their split [in 1985]), sent Giacomo Tachis to direct the vinification of Sassicaia. Their experience directly informed Tignanello's conception, validating the application of the Bordeaux model to Italian wine.