Masseto

Thirty years after its first vintage, this 100% merlot continues to stand apart from its bolgheri neighbours as an exceptional single-vineyard expression. The key is in the individuality of the terroir, explains stephen brook.

- Stephen Brook

THERE’s A LARGE hole in the ground next to the Masseto vineyard, with just some concrete walls to suggest the outlines of what late this year will be a new winery. Tearing away at the hill has revealed the blue-grey clay soils that give Masseto its typicity. Now the Frescobaldis, owners of Masseto, want to consolidate that identity by giving this all-Merlot wine its own production facility and cellar.

Until now Masseto has been a wine in the embrace of its neighbour Ornellaia. Both were created in the 1980s by lodovico Antinori. Ornellaia was the first project, and its first vintage was 1985. Until that time the Tuscan Coast was not known for prestigious wines. The Antinori family estate produced rosé wines along the coast, and most local wines were simply part of a poly culture system, whereby farmers made some wine alongside olives and fruit.

There was one major exception: sassicaia. This too had begun as a private estate, essentially supplying the Bordeaux-style wine its owner enjoyed drinking. It was only after several years that the wine received a commercial distribution from the ubiquitous Antinori family. By 1985 it had become a celebrated wine, and it couldn’t have been an accident that the adventurous lodovico Antinori established Ornellaia as another Bordeaux-style wine in the region, even with a slightly different varietal blend than sassicaia.

Rapid ascent