Wednesday Wines – Episode 251 – 2022 Sassicaia & 2023 Le Difese
It seems like only yesterday when I broke the news that I enjoyed tasting 2021 Sassicaia and 2022 Le Difese enormously and was overjoyed to report that while 2021 Sassicaia was a ripe, rich, weighty blockbuster, 2022 Le Difese was a lithe, sensual charmer, so their scores were closer than ever before! Please click this link to read my thoughts on last year’s releases.
This year’s releases were every bit as enthralling. It is encouraging that the two wines performed to type, embracing their respective vintage conditions while constructing their taste architecture to their desired plans. Le Difese acts like a trailer for the big release. Last year’s 2022 vintage informed my palate of the potential, theme and design of this year’s 2022 Grand Vin Sassicaia release and, accordingly, while Sass is undoubtedly made from the classical blueprint for this famous wine, it is not a soaring cathedral, but more of an observation tower. Leaner, more willowy, pure and fresh, this is a black-fruited wine with none of the overt exoticism of 2021. In its place are bright fruit tones and herbal and minty highlights that remind me more of an elite Margaret River Cabernet than a robust Left Bank claret, let alone a Super-Tuscan template. The perfume is delightful, with layers of black cherry, blackcurrant, black fig and char. The mid-palate is uncommonly silky and sleek, and the finish is respectful, refined and detailed. If you favour bigger, richer, chocolaty wines, then the 2021 will be your friend. If you favour more chiselled, cooler, quieter wines, then this year’s 2022 will work perfectly. If you are a fully paid-up member of the Sassicaia fan club, you must buy both because these two vintages will travel in tandem for a decade or more, inviting fascinating discussion, analysis and opinion, and I venture the votes will be split when tasters are asked to pick a favourite. One thing is sure: climate is becoming more and more impactful on wines from so-called warmer climes. Nothing can be taken for granted, and every vintage or every wine must be tasted and evaluated in the clear light of day. Labels, to my mind, have always been meaningless. It is the wine in the glass that speaks the truth, and so assessing 2022 Sassicaia, with its 88% Cabernet Sauvignon and 12% Cabernet Franc, and slight 13.5% alcohol, I think this vintage will be filed in the ‘classical’ pigeon-hole, and by this, I mean the classical Cabernet pigeon-hole and not a classical Sassicaia one. I like it. I have awarded it the same score as last year’s 2021 – a 19/20. Perhaps my favourite style from this mighty estate lounges is somewhere in the middle of these two book-end styles. Either way, they are both fascinating wines. I would not wait too long to open either vintage because fruit precocity is fast becoming a hallmark of this renowned estate.
Onto 2023 Le Difese, a wine that has captured my heart of late. Made from 65% Sangiovese and 35% Cabernet Sauvignon and weighing in at 13.5% alcohol, with some oak augmentation using old Guidalberto barrels, this is another cosmic release for this wine. Leave the anticipated release price aside for a moment and consider this wine in isolation, forgetting its parentage and hallowed turf. This beautiful, buoyant, highly attractive red wine balances enticing openness with formal build-quality under the bonnet. I know it is a baby, but you could conceivably down a bottle with steak frites without missing a beat, and yet I expect it to gather in kaleidoscopic appeal over the next 24 months. I adored last year’s 2022 vintage with its cool, calm, and collected attitude, knowing wink, and rakish appeal. But this 2023 is a phenomenon and the finest Le Difese I have ever tasted. I feel compelled to give it a gold medal score. It doesn’t matter that this wine is a ‘third tier release’ because its perfume, flavour and finish are simply stunning. So, it is with great pleasure that 2023 Le Difese gains a rare 18.5/20 score, and if this wine does not make it into my Finest Fifty 2025 round-up in late December, I will eat my capello.
Ps – given the class of 2023 Le Difese and how I view this wine as a Sassicaia soothsayer, I say you should set your alarm for Feb 2026, because something special will undoubtedly appear on the horizon.