Marchesi Antinori
Guado al Tasso Bolgheri Superiore
Bolgheri
2009

The producer

Founded by Piero Antinori in the late 1980s on the coast of upper Maremma, in the Bolgheri DOC, where cooling night breezes from the Mediterranean Sea temper the summer temperatures. 320 ha of land on which vineyards are planted with Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Cabernet Franc along with a little Syrah and Petit Verdot, the first vintage was produced in 1990 to immediate international acclaim. Despite many contenders, it remains one of the area’s top wines.

The wine

First produced in 1990, Guado al Tasso is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and sometimes Petit Verdot. The soil is alluvial and ranging from clay-sand to clay-loam always with rocky deposits. Fermentation and maceration take place in stainless steel vats and is followed by blending and finally ageing in new French oak barriques for 12-18 months. A rich and alluring wine with persistent and pure black fruit concentration and silky tannins and finish. 

We choose our wines based on a range of criteria (see how we choose our wines) of which critic scores is just one. Rather than simply highlight the best score to promote a wine, our average critic score is calculated from the scores provided by several respected wine critics, who we follow for specific regions. They do not represent all critic scores and, wherever possible, we try and give more weight to more recent reviews. Where appropriate we consider market-based scores like Global Wine Score or Wine Searcher Average scores.

As a rule, we look to offer wines that achieve a 92/100 average critic score or better and frankly a lot of very good wines simply don’t make the cut. As a high-end provider we want to reflect that positioning in the quality of wines we offer. Such wines are only a tiny fraction of those generally on offer in the market. We believe that an average score is a more conservative and representative approach, but it is still subjective and only offered as a guide to our customers, who will (and should) do their own research. We will add individual critic scores to our website in the future.