Bolgheri
Mediterranean
A coastal strip of the Tuscan Maremma where Cabernet-based blends, Sassicaia and Ornellaia among them, redefined Italian fine wine.
Overview
About Bolgheri
Bolgheri is a small village on the Tyrrhenian coast, reached along a five-kilometre avenue of cypresses made famous by the poet Giosuè Carducci. Until the 20th century this was a marshy, thinly farmed part of the Maremma. In the 1940s, Marchese Mario Incisa della Rocchetta planted Cabernet Sauvignon on his estate at Castiglioncello di Bolgheri, and the wine he made, Sassicaia, was first released commercially in 1968.
Sassicaia's success led other estates, including Ornellaia and Antinori's Guado al Tasso, to plant Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc, and later Syrah and Petit Verdot, near the coast. The wines were originally sold as simple table wine and became the archetype of the 'Super Tuscan'. Bolgheri became a DOC in 1983, and in 2013 Sassicaia was given its own sub-appellation, Bolgheri Sassicaia, the only Italian DOC held by a single estate.
Bolgheri is marked on the map.
Italy
Shaded: Livorno. Map units are states, provinces or départements, so a smaller place appears as the larger area that contains it.
The land
Climate & terroir
Climate
Mediterranean
A warm, dry Mediterranean climate, with sea breezes off the Tyrrhenian and mild winters. The coast ripens Cabernet reliably, while the hills behind give cooler nights and fresher wines.
Terroir & soils
What the vines grow in
Varied and largely alluvial: gravels and sandy soils on the coastal plain, which give ripe, plush wines, and clay and limestone with stones on the higher ground, which give more structured ones.
Go deeper
Rules, years & producers
Bolgheri has its own DOC for blends of international varieties, plus a single-estate sub-appellation for Sassicaia.
Bolgheri Sassicaia DOC
Reserved for Tenuta San Guido's Sassicaia, the only single-estate DOC in Italy.
Bolgheri Superiore DOC
The higher tier of Bolgheri Rosso, aged for at least two years, part of it in oak.
Bolgheri Rosso DOC
Blends built on Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Syrah, with fewer limits on style.
What's grown here
Grapes
Each grape's page links back here.
Cabernet Franc
A blending partner in Bolgheri, and the main grape of Le Macchiole's Paleo.
Cabernet Sauvignon
The backbone of Bolgheri's blends, including Sassicaia, on a coast where it was first planted in the 1940s.
Merlot
A key "Super Tuscan" blending partner alongside Sangiovese and Cabernet Sauvignon.