![]() The entrance to the barrique barrel room at Masseto. “That somehow needs to be softened a little bit, and that’s where the other parcels come in … the perfect wine is the balance out of the three parts.” “The key part is obviously the heavy-clay slope of Masseto Centrale, which gives a merlot that’s different than any merlot I’ve tasted – a lot of density, a lot of structure, a lot of tannins which you can actually taste on the berries,” Heinz says. Its famous depth can be attributed, at least in part, to the winery’s special terroir, which is divided into three main zones – Massetoe Alto, Masseto Centrale and Masseto Junior – each with its own contribution. Over the past two decades, Masseto – which has been owned by the Frescobaldi Group since 2005 –has kept a razor-sharp focus on this single grape. ![]() Set about 120 meters above sea level, the hill’s soil contained loose pebbles, sand and ancient clay which, he believed, would lend character, power and finesse to merlot grapes, particularly when combined with cool sea breezes, long sunny days and Mediterranean temperatures. ![]() As the story goes, acclaimed Russian-American oenologist Andre Tchelistcheff took notice of a rocky hill on the outskirts of the winery while consulting for sister winery Ornellaia in the 1980s. The fact that this library of merlots exists in the first place is something of a miracle itself. And in homage to Masseto’s superlative track record, a dramatic “Masseto Caveau” wine cellar showcases all 32 vintages.Ĭlose-up detail of the Masseto logo in the winery. The spacious underground rooms move seamlessly from single-lot vinification tanks to barrique barrel-aging to the bottling line. While the new architectural identity elevates Masseto to the level of its sister winery Ornellaia – which produces an exquisite Bordeaux-style Super Tuscan – the most important consideration was the gravity-flow production process. “Our winemaking is about reducing the process, reducing intervention, with a ‘less is more’ philosophy.” “Nothing is missing, and there is no more than necessary,” says Axel Heinz, winemaker and estate director of Masseto. Today, in the middle of the vineyard, a massive angular doorway marks the entrance to the underground winemaking lair – a 27,000-square-foot, ultra-modern space nicknamed “The Quarry.” Brought to life by Milan’s renowned ZITOMORI studio, the winery feels raw and rugged, with extensive use of brushed concrete, glass, steel, blue-grey claystone (providing natural insulation) and stone as a nod to Masseto’s heritage (“masso” means “rock”). And while Masseto has already hit the bullseye time after time, there’s reason to believe that the best is yet to come. The winery’s 2001 vintage catapulted the winery onto the international map, where it has stayed ever since as a red-hot commodity for auction houses and discerning collectors. The undertones on the nose remind me of walking through the Masseto vineyard during a cool summer’s morning.” “The 2001 is a perfect 100-point wine and arguably one of the greatest wines ever made in Tuscany … It’s balanced with fascinating rosemary and dark fruit character that turns to plums and light chocolate. ![]() “I believe the best vintage is the monumental 2001,” says James Suckling. He actually helped create the wine in the 1980s when he tasted a vat of pure merlot with then-owner Lodovico Antinori and told him the wine could be “the Petrus of Tuscany” if he bottled it separately. James Suckling was one of the first American wine critics to recognize the winery’s magical merlot, having awarded three Masseto vintages – 2001, 2011, and 2016 – perfect 100-point scores. The winery produces superb, pure merlot vintages that consistently taste fresh yet structured, soft yet powerful. This unbelievable demand and superb quality make it one of the cult wines of a generation and the Wine of the Decade for. Opening prices for new vintages reach as much as $800 a bottle, but the wines sell out from the winery within weeks. Before that, the wine was produced from its vineyards in the cellars of Bolgheri’s famous estate of Ornellaia, which also shares the same owners, the Florentine Frescobaldi family. It wasn’t until last year that Masseto finally opened its own winery. Set under the sunny Bolgheri region of Italy, Masseto’s iconic vineyard stretches across a gently sloping valley, where greyish-blue clay lies underfoot and the Tyrrhenian Sea ricochets light across the vines. It even sells a large proportion of its production through Bordeaux wine merchants. If there is one winery in Tuscany that contends with the chateaux in Bordeaux and Burgundy, it has to be Masseto.
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