Princess diaries: Savouring Sassicaia was more than sipping vintage Italian wine
When you meet Priscilla Incisa Della Rochetta, you are at once reminded of the old adage, "Old money doesn't have to shout to make itself heard."
I met Priscilla at Le Cirque, where Chef Diego Martinelli put together a fine wine-paired lunch, after the guardian angel of Sassicaia, one of Italy's noblest wine labels, had taken a red-eye flight from Bangalore and got down to work as soon as she had landed.
The pace of her short three-city Indian tour has been as demanding as it was on her last visit to this country ten years ago.
In the last 24 hours, she had just had two hours of sleep, but Priscilla, a mother of two who lives with her German husband in Milan when she's not living off suitcases, was as warm and welcoming as the Sassicaia 2011 that was served with the main course of grilled New Zealand lamp chops with a gentle crust of pecorino cheese and bread crumbs.
Priscilla, famous internationally as the "Princess of Sassicaia", manages the international business of Tenuta San Guido, the wine estate that her grandfather, put on the world map after realising his dream of creating a "thoroughbred" wine - like the English thoroughbreds raised in the sprawling estate - with the unmistakable bouquet of an aged Bordeaux.
In the 1940s, the Marchese, having settled in Tenuta San Guido, 60km south of Pisa on the Tyrrhenian coast, started planting Cabernet Sauvignon, much to the surprise of traditionalists who swore by Sangiovese in Tuscany (and Nebbiolo in Piedmont).
The wine produced at the estate between 1948 and 1967 didn't quite get the reception the Marchese had hoped for, so it remained in the family as its preferred drink.
Priscilla, who is 41-years-old, remembers imbibing some of the bottles that had been left ageing in the cellar of the ancient castle.
Encouraged by friends and family, the Marchese kept working at the wine and launched it commercially in 1968.
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| Meet Priscilla Incisa Della Rochetta. (Photo credit: Mail Today) |
James Suckling, the venerable wine critic, gave the debutant 93 out of 100, describing it as "beautiful", "amazing", "pretty" and "impressive". That was the start of the ascent to glory of the Bourdeaux-style, Cabernet Sauvignon-driven wine, which started life being classified as a Vino da Tavola (table wine) just because it did not have a drop of Sangiovese, as is mandatory in Tuscany, before being universally hailed as a "Super Tuscan" - along with such greats as the Ornellaia and Tignanello - and accorded its own denomination of origin, DOC Bolgheri Sassicaia, in 1994.
The vineyards of Tenuta San Guido cover 90 hectares scattered across the vast estate.
One land parcel producing grapes for Sassicaia, as a result, could be as far removed from the other by 6-9km, but the production of this iconic wine is limited year after year to 250,000 bottles.
If Sassicaia is all about the Marchesi and his vision, Guidalberto, the other big wine of the estate launched commercially in 2000, bears the stamp of his son Nicolo, who has been the director of Tenuta San Guido for the past 40 years.
Guidalberto, named after Nicolo's great great great grandfather and 19th-century agricultural innovator Guidalberto della Gherardesca, combines 60 per cent of Cabernet Sauvignon with 40 per cent of Merlot, and its production is limited to 300,000 bottles.
By classification, Guidalberto is an IGT wine, lower in the pecking order than one with a DOC or DOCG tag, but the 2012 we drank - a serious wine, almost as serious as a wine critic, and not flirty like the Sassicaia 2011 - got along with Martinelli's Tuscan chicken liver pate with black truffle and cognac scent served with rosemary crostini, jams and compotes like a house on fire.
It's a rare privilege to be savouring a wine which is the stuff of legends with a member of Italy's wine aristocracy.
Priscilla made it doubly special with her innate simplicity that masked the depth of her knowledge about her wines.
Her work had prevented her from seeing much of the three cities she had visited, and much to her regret, she could not take a ride on a tuk-tuk (autorickshaw).
Maybe she'd be able to do it the next time she's in India.
(Courtesy of Mail Today.)