5/7/2023 0 Comments Masseto wineAnd since 2012, Masseto has been farmed organically.’ We want to have the most even ripening possible, so we’re constantly monitoring the plots. ‘The idea is to try to reduce direct exposure to sunlight. ‘These work well in hot, dry climates such as ours, but it’s just a small parcel and we’re still assessing how appropriate they are,’ Heinz says. summers may be getting hotter but we can still experience a very late vintage – as in 2014, for example, when the last grapes were picked on 9 October.’Īnother change has been the introduction from 2008 of bush vines. ‘Gradually I made some changes to the way we managed the vineyard, largely because of global warming, even though it’s not a uniform process. ‘Ploughing dates, for example, can vary greatly depending on weather conditions,’ he says. But its clay soils, which are easily compacted, make different demands and can be difficult to work with. ‘By the time I arrived,’ Heinz says, ‘Masseto had its own identity and reputation, so I just wanted to maintain its style.’ The Masseto vineyard is farmed, he explains, in much the same way as Ornellaia. he appears to be fully trusted by his employers, the Frescobaldi family they do know a thing or two about wine but seem content to let Heinz do as he sees fit, especially since he hasn’t put a foot wrong in the dozen years he has been in charge of production. With a German father, a French mother and solid experience in Bordeaux, Heinz is every inch the cosmopolitan winemaker – thoughtful but confident, relaxed but far from complacent. In 2005, Axel Heinz, who had worked at Château la Dominique in St-Emilion, was hired and remains in place. Bordeaux connectionsĪfter Gál returned to Hungary, there was a succession of winemakers at the estate, including Thomas Duroux, now at Château Palmer in Margaux. Rolland, with his Pomerol roots, was thoroughly at home with Merlot, and Masseto, crafted by Hungarian winemaker Tibor Gál, was on a roll, unquestionably Italy’s finest expression of Merlot. From the outset, Masseto was released at a higher price than Ornellaia itself.īy the late-1980s, Tchelistcheff had ceased to consult for Lodovico Antinori, and by 1991 Michel Rolland was on board, and remains the estate’s adviser. A perfect 100-point score from an American critic for the 2001 vintage sealed its fate as a ‘collectible’. As its reputation spread, so did its circle of buyers. It attracted the attention of Italian collectors undaunted by its high price. It soon became apparent that Masseto was a fine and distinctive wine in its own right. Nobody knows the origin of the plants, which came from an Italian nursery. Most of the vineyard was planted in 1984, and the remainder, in the lower sector, in 1995, although there has been some more recent replanting too. Moreover, the benchmark wine in Bolgheri was Sassicaia, which never included Merlot in the blend. The Frescobaldis’ own Merlot wine, Lamaione – produced on the Castelgiocondo estate in Montalcino – was not made until 1991. 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.Īntinori was reluctant at first, as Merlot was largely an unknown quantity in Tuscany, other than some plantings at Castello di Ama in Chianti Classico, a very different region from the Tuscan Coast. It was only after several years that the wine received a commercial distribution from the ubiquitous Antinori family. This too had begun as a private estate, essentially supplying the Bordeaux-style wine its owner enjoyed drinking. There was one major exception: Sassicaia. The Antinori family estate produced rosé wines along the coast, and most local wines were simply part of a polyculture system, whereby farmers made some wine alongside olives and fruit. Until that time the Tuscan Coast was not known for prestigious wines. Ornellaia was the first project, and its first vintage was 1985. Both were created in the 1980s by Lodovico Antinori. Until now Masseto has been a wine in the embrace of its neighbour Ornellaia. Now the Frescobaldis, owners of Masseto, want to consolidate that identity by giving this all-Merlot wine its own production facility and cellar. Tearing away at the hill has revealed the blue-grey clay soils that give Masseto its typicity. 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.
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