Sassicaia and friends – the tasting notes

I spent a couple of magical days on the Tuscan coast recently, and describe the high point in Sassicaia in magnum – the perfect perk? The pièce de resistance was Friday lunch in a ruined castle at which many a different vintage of Sassicaia, including 1985, was served in magnum. On the left you can see some of the preparations for this very complicated service at the top of mountain reached only by the roughest of tracks. I cannot imagine what they would have done if it had rained.

While in Bolgheri I had a chance to taste widely from...