The Super Tuscans & Bolgheri
The strip of coast where Tuscany tore up its own rulebook — Bordeaux grapes planted by the sea, sold as humble table wine because they broke the code, and now among the most coveted reds in Italy. Here's the Super Tuscan story, from Sassicaia to Ornellaia, and how you get in.
Everything you've learned so far — one grape, three hill towns, centuries of Sangiovese tradition — now throw half of it out. Drive an hour and a half west of Montepulciano, down out of the hills to a flat strip of coast, and you reach a Tuscany that shares almost nothing with the interior but the postcode. No Sangiovese. No old appellation. Cypress avenues, sea air, and Bordeaux grapes. This is Bolgheri, and it's where a few stubborn aristocrats broke Italian wine open.
The wine that shouldn't have existed
Rewind to the mid-20th century. Bolgheri had no wine reputation whatsoever — it was marshy coastal farmland, better known for grazing than grapes. Then Marchese Mario Incisa della Rocchetta, who loved the reds of Bordeaux, planted Cabernet Sauvignon on his Tenuta San Guido estate, at first purely for his own table. He aged it, he waited, and by the time the wine was released commercially — from the 1968 vintage — it was clear something extraordinary had happened. A Cabernet from the Tuscan coast was standing shoulder to shoulder with the great growths of France.
There was only one problem. It broke every rule. The appellation code of the day recognised Sangiovese and tradition, not French grapes by the sea — so this brilliant, expensive wine had to be sold under the humblest label Italy had: Vino da Tavola, table wine. Sassicaia was born an outlaw.
The greatest Tuscan wines of a generation were legally classified as plonk. That absurdity is the whole Super Tuscan story in one line.
How "table wine" conquered the world
Sassicaia wasn't alone for long. Up in Chianti, the Antinori family — cousins of the Incisa — released Tignanello, a Sangiovese blended with Cabernet and aged in French barriques, equally rule-breaking and equally sold as mere table wine. The wine press needed a name for these ambitious renegades, and coined one that stuck: Super Tuscans.
The category exploded through the 1980s. These were wines with international grapes, small-barrel ageing, Bordeaux ambition and prices to match — and the market didn't care what the label said. Eventually the law surrendered to reality. Bolgheri got its own DOC in 1994, and Sassicaia was granted something almost unheard of: its own single-estate appellation, Bolgheri Sassicaia. The outlaw became the sheriff. For the style's full arc across Tuscany, see Super Tuscan.
What Bolgheri actually tastes like
This is Bordeaux transplanted and sun-warmed. The reds are built on Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc, deep and plush and structured, with ripe blackcurrant, cedar, tobacco and a polish the leaner Sangiovese interior never aims for. They're richer and rounder than anything from the hill towns — approachable younger than Brunello, but capable of long ageing in their own right. If Chianti and Brunello are savoury and Italian to the core, Bolgheri is cosmopolitan: a wine that could hold a blind-tasting argument against the Médoc.
The landscape matches the wine. Flat where the interior is hilly, the zone's signature is the Viale dei Cipressi, the ruler-straight avenue of cypresses running inland toward Bolgheri village, a line of dark trees against the sea light that a 19th-century poet made famous long before the wine did.
For buying, it helps to know the zone comes in two tiers. Bolgheri Rosso is the entry level — a blend released younger, the affordable way into the style and often a genuine bargain from a top address. Bolgheri Superiore is the ambitious tier, aged longer and drawn from better fruit, where most of the serious wines sit (Sassicaia stands apart under its own single-estate designation). If you want the coast's character without the icon price, a good producer's straight Bolgheri Rosso is the smart first pour.
Which door opens — and the famous trap
Here's the catch that catches everyone. The most legendary names on this coast are the hardest to visit. Tenuta San Guido, home of Sassicaia, does not run standard public cellar tours — the way in is essentially affiliated hospitality, not a walk through the winery. Don't plan a day around getting behind that gate; you'll be disappointed.
Point yourself instead at Ornellaia, founded by Lodovico Antinori in 1981 and one of the more welcoming icons — visits by appointment, and the estate behind Masseto, the 100% Merlot from a hill of blue clay that collectors chase as hard as almost anything in Italy. Book well ahead. The rule on this coast: the wines are world-famous, the doors are narrow, and access is by arrangement only.
Bolgheri is Tuscany at its most outward-looking — international grapes, global fame, big reds. Time to swing the other way entirely, back to the quiet, overlooked corner of the region that almost everyone forgets it has: the whites. A towered town famous for a crisp white the popes drank, and a golden dessert wine made in attics from dried grapes and served with biscuits to dip. That's Vernaccia and Vin Santo, and Part 6 gives Tuscany's forgotten bottles their due.
Common questions
An unofficial name for a category of Tuscan reds — mostly built on Bordeaux grapes like Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc, sometimes blended with Sangiovese — that first appeared in the 1970s. They were 'super' because they were ambitious and expensive, but they broke the appellation rules of the day, so they had to be sold under the lowly Vino da Tavola (table wine) label. Sassicaia and Tignanello were the pioneers. The wines were so good the system eventually rewrote itself around them. For the style in full, see [Super Tuscan](/en/it/wine/styles/super-tuscan/).
The red wine of Bolgheri, a small zone on the Tuscan coast southwest of Florence, and the heartland of the Super Tuscan movement. Unlike the Sangiovese interior, Bolgheri is Bordeaux country — Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc, warmed by the sea and grown on a flat cypress-lined plain. It's home to Sassicaia, Ornellaia and Masseto, some of the most sought-after and expensive wines in Italy, and it's a completely different Tuscany from the hill towns.
The wine that started it all. In the mid-20th century Marchese Mario Incisa della Rocchetta planted Cabernet Sauvignon at his Tenuta San Guido estate near Bolgheri, initially just for the family table. The first commercial release, from the 1968 vintage, stunned the wine world — a Bordeaux-style red from the Tuscan coast that could stand with the best of France. It was long sold as mere table wine, then earned its own appellation, Bolgheri Sassicaia, unique to the single estate. It remains the founding Super Tuscan.
Some, with planning; the most famous, barely. Ornellaia receives visitors by appointment and is one of the more accessible icons. But Tenuta San Guido, home of Sassicaia, does not run standard public cellar tours — the way to taste it is essentially through affiliated hospitality, not a walk through the winery. Don't build a day around a label you can't actually get behind. Book what you can in advance, and treat the coast as an appointment-only zone.
Glossary
- Super Tuscan
- An unofficial term for ambitious Tuscan reds — often Bordeaux-grape blends, sometimes with Sangiovese — that broke the appellation rules of the 1970s and were sold as 'table wine' despite their quality and price. Sassicaia and Tignanello were the originals.
- Bolgheri Sassicaia
- A rare single-estate appellation on the Tuscan coast, created for the wine of Tenuta San Guido — one of the very few DOCs in Italy dedicated to one property.
- Viale dei Cipressi
- The famous avenue of cypresses running inland from the coast toward Bolgheri village, immortalised in a 19th-century poem and now the emblematic image of the zone.