Marchesi Antinori Tenuta Guado al Tasso Vermentino 2024, Bolgheri DOC

Marchesi Antinori Tenuta Guado al Tasso Vermentino comes from the family’s celebrated estate on the Tuscan coast at Bolgheri, about 100 km south-west of Florence. Guado al Tasso covers some 1,000 hectares in the so-called Bolgheri amphitheatre, a plain ringed by hills, with around 320 hectares under vine. While the estate is best known for its reds, Vermentino has been made here since 1996, thriving in the sea breezes and Mediterranean sunshine. Each vineyard parcel is picked separately at optimum ripeness, gently pressed and fermented cool in stainless steel, with no oak, to capture the grape’s natural freshness.

The wine is straw yellow with greenish highlights. On the nose come citrus fruit and citrus blossom, white flowers, pear and tropical notes, with a light herbal touch. The palate is savoury and lively, with good persistence, a coastal freshness and a crisp, citrusy finish.

Guado al Tasso Vermentino is made for seafood: try it with grilled prawns, spaghetti alle vongole, fritto misto, sea bass baked with herbs or a summer salad with feta. Serve chilled at around 10 to 12°C. It is lovely young and will keep its freshness for two to three years.

Few names carry as much weight in Italian wine as Antinori. The family joined the Florentine Winemakers’ Guild in 1385 and has run the business directly for twenty-six generations, from the Palazzo Antinori in the centre of Florence. Over the centuries it has gathered some of Italy’s great estates, from Tenuta Tignanello in Chianti Classico to Tenuta Guado al Tasso on the Bolgheri coast. Antinori is famous for pushing Tuscan wine forward: in the 1970s Tignanello became the first Sangiovese aged in small oak barriques and one of the first Tuscan reds blended with Cabernet, helping to launch the style now known as Super Tuscan. The approach remains the same: respect for tradition, matched by a willingness to experiment.