2013 Ornellaia Masseto***

Lamberto Frescobaldi said, ‘the nose is still so tight and yet the wine is amusing’! Dry summer with mid-August rain which helped maturity. pH was nearly 4 ‘which we don’t care for’. Late, fresh vintage. The first of these wines to smell fully resolved. Lifted. Sweet and salty, with a rich texture of many flavours distracting from quite noticeable, but not excessive, tannins . Really nicely knit. Velvety texture and the gamey side of Merlot. Bordeaux-trained Marco wonders whether it reminds him of bordeaux. Sings more eloquently than some hotter vintages. This wine dances on the palate and has wonderful length. Really throbs on the palate. And has the velvety sweetness and texture of Merlot. (JR)

The 2013 Masseto is really starting to show off, opening in the glass to aromas of framboise, crushed stones, cypress, fresh leather, and minty lift. Ripe but chiseled, it’s full-bodied, with very well-defined, ripe tannins. Notes of salty dark earth drive the wine forward, while more savory and earthy notes of pu-ehr tea last long after the wine is gone. It’s a wine that will be sturdy in the long run, and its structure is not going anywhere. For my personal taste, the 2020 has a slight edge over this, but it’s a remarkable wine. Drink 2025-2050. The adjacent sister property to Ornellaia, the Masseto estate in Bolgheri produces benchmark wines based on Merlot, with its first vintage in 1987. As noted in this report’s introduction and in the Ornellaia profile, 2023 saw the departure of long-time winemaker and estate director Axel Heinz. Winemaker Gaia Cinnirella is staying on and shows tremendous promise for the estate. Their new winery, which debuted in 2018, was designed by architects Hikaru Mori and Maurizio Zito of the ZitoMori Studio, who named it “The Quarry.” It’s an impressive design, with the exterior blending into the landscape, only to reveal its true grandeur upon entering the winery beneath. One feature of the new winery has been moving away from using stainless steel, which they found could contribute to reductive qualities. Instead, 20 to 25% of the wine is now fermented in concrete tanks, with the remainder in oak barrels. The concrete also takes on some of the qualities of barrel fermentation, without adding the additional flavors that barrels would contribute. The oldest vines are currently approaching 40 years old, and in newer vintages, Cabernet Franc they planted more recently has been making its way into the wines. My tasting took place at the winery with Gaia Cinnirella.

The 2013 Masseto is a wine of real vibrancy, clarity and precision. In some moments, the 2013 shows a bit of its voluptuous fruit, but it is rich, structured and clearly in need of time. Like all Massetos from cooler years, the 2013 is a long-distance runner. Give it time. A warm, dry summer helped the vineyards catch up after a late and irregular flowering. Cool nighttime temperatures provided the diurnal shifts at the end of the season that are so critical for the development of aromatics.