The Super Tuscans: Sassicaia, Ornellaia, and Tignanello

Some of the greatest wines are born of rebellion, and few stories illustrate it better than that of the Super Tuscans. In the 1970s, a handful of ambitious Tuscan producers grew frustrated with rigid appellation rules that dictated which grapes they could plant and how their wines must be made. So they broke the rules, planting Bordeaux varieties like Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, or ignoring the required blends, and in doing so created wines of a quality Italy had rarely seen. Because these bottles did not conform to the regulations, they could be labeled only as vino da tavola, ordinary table wine, even as they outshone and outsold the officially sanctioned classics beside them.

The pioneer was Sassicaia, made at Tenuta San Guido on the then obscure coast of Bolgheri from Cabernet Sauvignon, a grape with no Tuscan tradition at all. Its success was such that the authorities eventually relented and created an appellation, Bolgheri Sassicaia, for a single estate, a recognition without precedent. Close behind came Tignanello, made by the ancient house of Antinori from Sangiovese blended with Bordeaux grapes, and its sibling Solaia, wines that proved a great Tuscan red need not follow the old formulas. Bolgheri itself blossomed into a new heartland of Italian fine wine, giving rise to Ornellaia and its rare, Merlot based stablemate Masseto, now among the most collected wines in the country.

What the Super Tuscans shared was ambition and quality rather than a single recipe. Some leaned on French grapes, others on native Sangiovese, but all were made with an obsessive attention to low yields, careful winemaking, and long ageing in fine oak, methods borrowed in part from Bordeaux. The wines that resulted were richer, more polished, and more age worthy than most Italian reds of the era, and they commanded prices to match.

Their influence went far beyond the bottles themselves. The Super Tuscans forced a rethink of Italy's entire wine law, humiliating a classification system that had branded its finest wines as table plonk, and they gave Italian fine wine a new confidence on the world stage. Today the term has lost its rebellious edge and become a mark of prestige, and the leading examples sit comfortably beside the great names of France in cellars and at auction.

For collectors, the Super Tuscans offer some of the most rewarding wines in Italy, with a proven record at the great sales and the pleasure of a story that reshaped a nation's wine. Building a cellar around them follows the same principles set out in our guide to starting a fine wine collection. To source the leading estates or older vintages, contact us.