Bolgheri 2020: Vintage overview and top-scoring wines

Bolgheri 2020: 4/5

‘A slightly lighter, though well balanced vintage overall, but not without difficulties. Heat in early September brought the harvest forward. Some Cabernet Sauvignon was affected by rain, which caused dilution.’

At Tenuta San Guido, everyone was called back for the harvest; at Ornellaia, the four grape varieties were harvested together. The 2020 vintage in Bolgheri was defined more than ever by the weather.

In the very early days of September, scorching heat forced a sudden acceleration of the harvest. After that, rain diluted the Cabernet Sauvignon. These seem to be the details that characterised the 2020 vintage: warm, but not without strong contrasts.

Scroll down to see notes and scores for the best-scoring wines from the 2020 vintage

The 2020 vintage in Bolgheri

My first taste of the 2020 vintage – at Tenuta San Guido – was almost something of a disappointment. I tasted from the barrels before the final blend was created, and some samples were already almost worryingly mature. Fortunately, none of these appear to have ended up in the final blend of Sassicaia, which stands out in this warm vintage for its freshness and aromatics.

‘It was a challenging vintage that required a lot of manual labour – but there was the lockdown,’ commented Carlo Paoli, managing director of Tenuta San Guido. ‘After a cool and rainy June, a warm harvest with simultaneous ripening prevented us from pushing the macerations as much as we would have liked and could have. Attention to the older vines allowed us to extract more with long macerations on vineyards like Sassicaia and Quercione.’

‘In early September, we harvested all four varieties in one day, something that had never happened at Ornellaia,’ recounted Axel Heinz, the former estate director at Ornellaia, who left for Bordeaux in 2022. ‘You can feel the warmth of the year, with colour and ripe fruit, but nothing excessive; in the final blend, there is purity and proportion.’

According to Gaja’s 2020 vintage report, ‘the grape clusters are, on average, 15% larger than usual, with crisp and fine skins. The quality of Cabernet Franc and Merlot is excellent; even Shiraz and Sangiovese show good balance, while the quality of Cabernet Sauvignon was more variable, despite some high-quality peaks.’

‘[It’s] A vintage of beautiful density and character. It is still shy in the glass, less expressive than the 2019 and 2021, often showing notes of dark and Mediterranean fruits. Time will reveal its solidity better,’ said Giacomo Satta of Michele Satta.

Overall, 2020 appears to be a more robust and concentrated 2018, but with greater balance it’s a vintage of well proportioned wines with classic ageing potential, peaking between eight and 15 years then holding steady for the following 10. Ultimately, 2020 is a vintage deserving of a 4-star rating.

Vintage highlights

One of the highlights this year is a pure Sangiovese wine aged in amphorae: Mulini di Segalari’s Soloterra comes from one of the most beautiful and suitable areas of Bolgheri, that of Segalari, high above the village of Castagneto Carducci on soils lighter than those below the Bolgherese road. Mulini di Segalari is incidentally the only biodynamic cellar in Bolgheri.

Among the garagistes, it’s worth noting the good performance of Podere Conca, in the heart of Via Bolgherese, with its sleek drinkability. The Cabernet Franc of Tenuta Meraviglia continues to improve, and with it, there’s an emergence of large barrels – also utilised at Caccia al Piano.

In 2020, Masseto stands out above all, however, finding in the balance between its usual concentration and the lighter vintage an element of great finesse. Sassicaia, Ornellaia, Grattamacco and Guado al Tasso also continue to confirm their status as Bolgheri ‘first growths’.

Bolgheri at a glance

Bolgheri, the ‘Bordeaux blend’ denomination of Tuscany, shines today for its consistency – like Bordeaux itself, or Napa in California. The size of the wineries often maintains a moderate, if not ‘garagiste’ character.

Bolgheri currently consists of 72 producers and 1,365 hectares of vines within the DOC. It fairly consistently releases over 7 million bottles annually, reaching 7.6m in 2022 despite the drought. Production of the 2023 vintage is down to 6 million bottles, however, due to downy mildew, and 2020 was also below average at 6.5m bottles – proof that it was not an easy year.

However, according to data from Winesearcher.com processed for the Bolgheri consortium, the average price of Bolgheri Superiore has increased by 11% to €63 per bottle (excluding VAT), reaching €138 when considering e-commerce in foreign markets. In the UK on-trade channel, for example, Bolgheri Superiore consistently averaged £306 (including VAT, as of April 2021).

The driving force behind this coastal denomination is still red wine, despite the summer success of Vermentino. However, the composition of the blends is changing. Cabernet Franc is the variety seeing the most growth, establishing a stronger identity in Bolgheri year after year: between 2017 and 2021, hectares of Cabernet Franc under vine grew by 35.12%, from 158 to 244 hectares, catching up with plantings of Merlot.

Cabernet Franc now represents 18.33% of total hectares under vine in Bolgheri DOC, while Merlot represents 25.69% and Cabernet Sauvignon 39.25% (the latter remains the most representative grape variety).

View the Bolgheri 2020 score table featuring all 50 wines rated

Developments

Investment in the area continues apace. Following the arrivals of Feudi di San Gregorio and Banfi, the Constellation Brands-owned Ruffino has also announced a Bolgheri Superiore which will be 2024. The winemaking team will be led by Olga Fusari, formerly of Ornellaia.

Cabernet Franc is increasingly a protagonist in Bolgheri, but if its contribution seems crucial to many blends – whether they are Cabernet Sauvignon-based or Merlot-based, such as Masseto – on its own it doesn’t always produce excellent wines that reach the heights of Le Macchiole’s Paleo.

100% Merlot wines hold up well, thanks to areas of blue clay, while Cabernet Sauvignon remains the dominant base, even though it suffered more from the rain in 2020.

Petit Verdot, perhaps too structured for the generous microclimate of the Tuscan coast, is largely being abandoned.

Aldo’s top Bolgheri 2020 picks

View the Bolgheri 2020 score table featuring all 50 wines rated

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