At the point where the Via Aurelia meets the Viale di Bolgheri is a circle of cypresses surrounding the obelisk that Giuseppe della Gherardesca erected for Nobel prize winner Giosuè Carducci. Beyond the obelisk is the church of San Guido, built by Simone Maria della Gherardesca at the beginning of the 18th Century that lends its name to the Sassicaia estate. The Viale di Bolgheri is lined with cypresses, and runs through the heart of the Tenuta San Guido estate to the castle and village center of Bolgheri.

Tenuta San Guido is an estate of about 2500 hectares, whose most important feature is its diversity of purpose. Less than one fortieth of its surface is devoted to winemaking, while two-thirds of the total is woodland.

One hundred and fifty hectares comprise the Dormello-Olgiata thoroughbred training center, and the remaining six hundred and fifty hectares are cultivated with cereals or olive groves, used as pasture for horses and livestock or are part of Italy’s first private bird sanctuary – the Oasi of Bolgheri.

The estate rises from the Tyrrhenian Sea to the hills behind the castle of Castiglioncello, at a height of 396 meters – more than one thousand feet above sea level. This altitude makes for a very striking landscape, as well as a fabulous microclimate. Bolgheri