Sassicaia : The Original Super Tuscan

"I have this one with me because it’s a bit of a fetish book. All wine collectors should have this book, not just for the great photographs but because of how it recounts the birth of the original Supertuscans. These are wines that firmly established on an international level the concept of Tuscany as a region and the wines of Tuscany as a product. Sassicaia was probably the first brand wine. Marquis Incisa della Rocchetta, an incredible agronomist, had the opportunity to taste the greatest wines in the world thanks to his noble status, his family and heritage. He desired to replicate this greatness and spared neither expense nor energy, and basically lived his life around his creation. As well as being an excellent agronomist, he was also a great marketing man. He chose not to tell people what he was about to do, he just did it – not storytelling but story doing. This is an essential book to understand more about Tuscan wines. We see a very aristocratic expression with bigger properties, a pyramidal style of patronage and distinct personalities of the wines that is, in my opinion, a consequence of the personality of the people who made them. Although the first vintage was 1958, the first commercial vintage of Sassicaia was a decade later. He spent several years adjusting and perfecting his methods in order to reach his objective and that’s something worth noting."