Masseto - Toscana IGT 2020

Decanter.com

100 / 100

byGeorgina Hindlethe9/4/2023

Intense and full on the nose, fragrant with ripe black fruit, floral aspects and soft spicing. Round and full on the palate, it's rich and muscular yet tight and neatly coiled with a liquorice, graphite, pepper, cinnamon and clove tang that gives this immediate but enjoyable spice. Feels well worked, juicy with high acidity that lifts the palate and gives freshness and brightness alongside really quite mouthwatering strawberry and raspberry fruit with such captivating dried floral and bitter orange rind aspects. Tannins are super fine and so well integrated yet this maintains a grip and hold from the very beginning through to a long and sustained finish. Nuanced and complex, still packing a punch in terms of power, but this feels sophisticated, suave, purposeful and controlled. Not elegant, this is more of a caged animal with it's full potential yet to be unveiled, but it is classy. A truly delicious wine with so much purity and sense of place. Malolactic fermentation in 100% new barroques, with each batch kept separate for the first 12 months of ageing before being blended and returned to barriques for another year, totalling 24 months. The wine was then aged for a further 12 months in bottle before being released.

The Drink Business

100 / 100

byColin Haythe8/31/2023

A wine that you somehow expect to disappoint but that simply never does – here perhaps more than ever. The presence of the Cabernet Franc for only the second time (it was at 10% per cent in the 2019 as I recall) raises this, for me, to a level never previously attained. We have fireworks, both quasi-literal (in that there is a slight hint of cordite in the aromatics) and figurative (in that the image that comes to my mind when I try to capture what encountering this wine feels like is that of a firework display). But that is misleading too. For this is a wine of aromatic and sensual intensity but also of great calm, composure, grace and eloquence. It is subtle just as much as it is explosive. And it is also holding quite a lot back at this early stage. There is already great complexity here – a little subtle vanilla of hint, which is there in the empty glass too; graphite; a touch of spice and a little pepper; there’s blood orange too and a wondrous, again subtle, violet floral note from the Cabernet Franc. On the palate, this is rich and broad – Masseto is to Tuscany what Petrus is to Pomerol. But it is also hyper-fresh and so soft and caressing, with the most sublime, ultra-fine grained tannins. There’s plenty of grip, but a very slow and calm evolution over the palate – no fireworks here. Above all this is a wine of such wonderous potential with so much more to come; all in harmony and elegance. On the finish this is still chewy with tender tannins and exceptionally long – and a lovely rise to the top of the palate producing a vertical plume. So very pure and so very precise.

The Wine Independent

99 / 100

byLisa Perrotti-Brownthe8/21/2023

The 2020 Masseto, 85% Merlot and 15% Cabernet Franc, is medium to deep garnet-purple in color. It slowly emerges from the glass with notes of plum preserves, blueberry compote, and chocolate-covered cherries, leading to a gorgeous perfume of star anise, lilacs, mocha, and tar. The palate is full-bodied and super-concentrated, with layer upon layer of black fruit preserves and savory accents, framed by wonderfully ripe, rounded tannins and beautifully knit acidity, finishing very long and opulent. This is classic Masseto!

Vinous

98 / 100

byAntonio Gallonithe8/1/2023

Jane Anson, Inside Bordeaux

98 / 100

byJane Ansonthe7/3/2023

Raspberry plum colour, smooth and tender tannins, with fragrant, toasted cumin notes, deliciously drawn out flavours of supple raspberry, pomegranate, damson puree, with iris flowers as it opens. The whole thing is mouthwatering, juicy, intense and concentrated, utterly captivating. The Cabernet Franc amount has increased since its introduction with the 2019 vintage, and with it we are seeing a slight sculpting of the Masseto character. Harvest finished by September 16. This was a hot summer, followed by cooler temperatures during harvest, before heat arrived again mid September. 100% new oak, with 12 months in bottle after barrel ageing before release. Frescobaldi family owners, with Gaia Cinnirella winemaker since the 2021 harvest, so overseeing the ageing of this wine, with director Axel Heinz (with one of his final full vintages before heading to Bordeaux in 2023).

Alexandre Ma

98 / 100

byAlexandre Mathe7/1/2023

Since the vintage of 2020, it appears that Masseto has ventured into an entirely new realm. Its grandiose structure remains as steadfast as ever, yet in comparison to previous vintages, there’s now a touch of gentle allure. The profoundness of its finish remains intact, but it now carries a whisper of elegance the fineness. While this transformation might slightly unsettle some consumers, I am steadfast in my belief that it epitomizes Masseto’s harmonious resonance among “heaven, earth, and humanity,” showcasing even more profoundly its unique blue clay. Tasting this wine is akin to twisting the steel round the fingers. Personally, I lean towards the style of vintage of 2020, as it resonates more closely with my preferences.

Jamessuckling.com

99 / 100

byJames Sucklingthe6/26/2023

Intense aromas of ripe herbs, plums, green coffee beans, and hazelnuts. Turns to crushed berries and orange peel. Full-bodied with superb concentration and fine, velvety tannins that run the length of the wine. It's big but agile and gorgeous. Merlot. What a wine! Best after 2030.

Wine Advocate

96 / 100

byMonica Larnerthe5/31/2023

The 2020 Masseto now sees new DNA with a touch of Cabernet Franc added to this celebrated Merlot-based icon wine. This is a vintage of enormous richness and density, and everything about the wine is taken up a notch or two (including the bottle glass weight and the 15% alcohol content). But Axel Heinz and his team are well prepared for the hot vintages like 2020, and changes to farming and canopy management ensure even ripening. This wine is always hard to analyze in its youth. It needs many more years to soften and flesh out. Give it time.

Following a very productive 17 years at Masseto and Ornellaia, Estate Director Axel Heinz announced in March of this year that he was leaving his position. He will join Château Lascombes in Bordeaux as CEO. Axel was born in Germany, raised in France and established a brilliant winemaking career in Italy. "It makes it difficult to know which national soccer team to root for," he once joked with me. Under his time at Masseto and Ornellaia, the two brands grew in respective strength with individual identities. His new releases command some of the highest prices in Italian wine and are sought after by collectors worldwide. Axel oversaw the construction of the new Masseto winery, and he launched a second wine called Massetino (new vintages of both are reviewed here). Axel was quoted in the Italian press as saying, "Italy will stay in my heart forever, but it's time to go back to France."

I visited with Axel Heinz and the newly-appointed Masseto winemaker Gaia Cinnirella in early July to taste a preview sample of the 2020 Masseto and the 2020 Massetino that are hitting the market now. My review of the 15,000-bottle 2020 Massetino was published in May: https://www.robertparker.com/wines/TGgDqjsgpQZ4E4Rh2. Massetino was first produced in 2017, and this Merlot-based wine (with a small part Cabernet Franc) is already enjoying big success as the winery's "lower-entry" wine. The flagship remains Masseto (now in its 36th year). The iconic Merlot-based wine also has a small element of Cabernet Franc (from 6% to 7%) in the 2019 and the 2020 vintages. The decision to add the Cabernet Franc is part of a greater discussion on the impact of climate change in coastal Tuscan wines. Whether Cabernet Franc will be added to Masseto in the future will be decided on a vintage-by-vintage basis. The fact remains that Cabernet Franc performs very well in this specific environment. The estate had the opportunity to replant vines on blue clay soils that were previously used for the white wine Poggio alle Gazze dell'Ornellaia. They wanted to try a new variety. The scorching hot 2017 vintage caused further concern about warming summer temperatures, and Estate Director Axel Heinz was generally looking for a new approach with Masseto. Blending in the Cabernet Franc was a natural outcome, and Heinz cites inspiration from Pomerol and Saint-Émilion. After the classic 2019 vintage and the full-bodied 2020 vintage, comes the highly anticipated 2021 vintage. Heinz says, “The dry season concentrated the grapes, which yielded intense wines with great potential. The colors are particularly intense, like the aromas characterized by fully ripened black fruit. In the mouth, we find the unmistakable balance between richness and firmness that distinguishes Masseto. The wines develop a rich and concentrated palate, with dense and velvety tannins, as the result of careful and soft extraction, underpinned by striking acidity that is reminiscent of some of the best vintages, such as 2006, 2010 and 2016

Jeb DUNNUCK

97-99 / 100

byJeb Dunnuckthe1/26/2023

Tasted from barrel, the 2020 Masseto is incredibly expressive out of the gate, with a sweet perfume of candied plum, boysenberry, crushed flowers, mocha, sweet earth, and fresh sage. The palate is full-bodied and decadent, with a velvety texture and notes of black plum, fresh leather, and scorched mineral earth. It delivers great finesse and polish that features opulence without having weight. I look forward to tasting this next year from bottle.