Masseto…

The 2020 Tenuta Dell’Ornellaia Masseto (Merlot) is simply beautiful. A wine of extraordinary class and personality, it remains very primary in its dark fruit, liquorice, cassis, and toasted oak. The tannins are silky, the texture velvety, and the finish is endless. The wine opens up completely after 1 or 2 hours in the decanter.

The 2020 Tenuta Dell’Ornellaia Masseto is exquisite every time. As is often the case, the wine requires at least a few years of bottle aging before it becomes approachable, and fortunately, it has now undergone this aging under perfect conditions. The wine has evolved beautifully. Relatively still young and certainly cellarable for another 15-20 years. A perfectly crafted wine. Smooth, ripe, balanced. Only at the beginning of the drinking window will it age gracefully for another 20 years, and we hope to taste it in many more years to come. After all, you don't get this in your glass very often.

Opening a bottle of Masseto is unleashing a liquid kaleidoscope. An unrivaled combination of opulent luxury and polished elegance. Everything perfect, no compromises. Take a look at this video and you will understand why…. An Italian wine of great class!

94/100 points from the Wine Advocate (Robert Parker) 

Winemaker Axel Heinz described the Masseto process as follows:

Making Masseto is an exercise in balance; one feels like a tightrope walker always on the edge of an abyss.
The clayey soils in themselves represent contradictions: a capacity to store large quantities of water, to release it very gently.
Soil that is cold and wet in a rainy year, but becomes hard as rock during a dry summer. This creates a barrier for roots that struggle to penetrate deep into the subsoil.

A soil in which, with a low planting density, a level of power has been achieved that one would normally expect from a vineyard with a high density.
The vines of Masseto seem to be constantly wrestling with the elements, often on the verge of collapse. Yet somehow they are always able to resist and develop. This yields an abundance of fruit with incredible concentration and flavour. A rare combination of luscious ripeness and exuberant concentration. It somehow manages to retain its complexity and freshness.

Each individual vintage leaves its mark on the Masseto character. Like a masterpiece of music that sounds different, just like the artist who plays it.

On the flank of a hill near Bolgheri, a small village on the Tuscan coast overlooking the Tyrrhenian Sea, stands this magical vineyard. Here, they produce a wine born almost by chance. The potential of this slope remained untapped for a long time and was only recognized in the 1980s, when, despite all predictions, advice, and local tradition, the first vines were planted. In the decades that followed, the vineyard revealed many of its secrets, but there are just as many left to be discovered.