1997 Masseto

This wine was tasted as part of a complete retrospective I co-hosted with Masseto winemaker Axel Heinz, singer/songwriter Martina McBride and her husband, producer John McBride that was auctioned off at the Nashville Wine Auction to fund cancer research and treatment.

First made in 1986 as Il Merlot dell’Ornellaia, Masseto has gone on to become one of the most highly sought-after wines in the world. Masseto emerges principally from three Merlot vineyards: ‘Masseto Alto, Masseto Centrale and Masseto Junior.’ The wine sees 3-4 weeks on the skins, followed by malolactic fermentation in barrel. The lots are aged separately for 12 months in 100% new oak, blended and then the wine is aged for another 12 months in wood. Earlier vintages saw shorter macerations and less time in oak, broadly speaking. Production is around 32,000 bottles. Readers who want to learn more about the history of Masseto might enjoy this article from some years back.

This wine was tasted as part of a an Ornellaia and Masseto Retrospective hosted by Vinous on December 5, 2016. The tasting spanned eight iconic, reference point vintages; 2010, 2007, 2006, 2004, 2001, 1998, 1997 and 1995. All of the wines were served from magnum. Most of the Ornellaia magnums were from the Archivio Storico collection of library wines. The bottles were purchased from the estate, ensuring perfect provenance.

Over the years Tenuta dell'Ornellaia's Masseto has earned a well-deserved reputation as one of the world's great wines. As it turns out, Masseto's existence is quite accidental. When Lodovico Antinori and Tibor Gal first developed Tenuta dell'Ornellaia in the early 1980s, their goal was to create an estate wine that could stand on its own terms next to Sassicaia, Bolgheri's established superstar. Sassicaia is 100% Cabernet, so Antinori and Gal decided that Ornellaia would have a significant percentage of Merlot, which would help differentiate their wine. Out of curiosity and armed with a hunch they had a superior site, in 1986 Antinori and Gal bottled their first pure Merlot, Il Merlot dell'Ornellaia, as an experiment. Though not commercially released, the wine was a huge success and paved the way for the 100% Merlot Masseto, which was first released with the following vintage. One of the little-known consequences (and ironies) of the success of Masseto is that Ornellaia remained a much more heavily Cabernet Sauvignon-based wine than originally conceived. Masseto is made from as many as three vineyards, although in challenging years not all of the parcels make it into the final blend. Masseto Centrale is the original Merlot vineyard on the estate. It was planted in 1984. Masseto Centrale is further divided into two sub-parcels, Sinistro (left) and Destro (right) which are often picked and vinified separately. Masseto Alto lies just up the hill from Masseto Centrale. The ocean views from this higher-altitude site are quite striking and serve as a poignant reminder as to the origins of the Tuscan Maremma. Masseto Junior is the youngest Merlot vineyard and was planted in 1999. The harvest generally takes place from early to mid-September. Each of the parcels is harvested, vinified and aged separately. Fermentation and maceration has been around 25-30 days in recent years. Masseto is aged for 24 months in new French oak barrels. Typically the blend of sub-parcels takes place after the first twelve months of aging. The final, blended wine is returned to barrel for a subsequent twelve months before it is prepared for bottling. During the 1980s the estate experimented with shorter aging regimes, notable with the 1989 and 1990, which spent 11 and 14 months respectively in oak. Beginning with the 1991, all vintages have spent two years in barrel.

Tenuta dell'Ornellaia is without question one of Italy's blue-chip properties. The gorgeous, sprawling estate is located in Bolgheri in Tuscany's Maremma. On a recent visit I had the opportunity to taste a number of the estate's wines with General Manager/Agronomist Leonardo Raspini and Oenologist Axel Heinz, including verticals of the estate's top bottlings Ornellaia and Masseto. The 100% Merlot Masseto, on the other hand, has proven to be a wine of greater singularity. Its unique, unmistakable personality always comes through, especially in a set of widely diverse vintages, as this vertical attests. The Masseto vineyard measures roughly 7 hectares. Set on a gently sloping hill, the vineyard is divided into three sections which contain different clay-based soil types. The structure of Masseto comes from the central portion of the vineyard (Masseto Centrale), where the terrain is most compact. Towards the upper part of the hillside (Masseto Alto) the soils contain a higher percentage of rocks and thus yield wines that are more aromatic. The lower stretch of the vineyard, known as “Masseto Junior,” is also the most recent to be planted. According to Raspini the fruit from these vines bridges the qualities of the wines from the central and upper portions of the vineyard and thus serves to give Masseto its finesse and balance. There is also a small amount of fruit that comes from the “Vigna Vecchia” plot which is the source of the Merlot that is used for Ornellaia. Each parcel is harvested and vinified separately. Fermentation and maceration typically last around 25 days, give or take, depending on the quality of the fruit, after which the wines are moved into 100% new French oak barrels for the malolactic fermentations. The wines spend 12 months in oak prior to being assembled, after which the final blend spends an additional 12 months in oak prior to being bottled. “1997 was another year that started with a spring frost that reduced production at the outset. Even though it was a hot vintage, the wines have retained a fair amount of freshness and it is mostly on the finish where the warmth of the vintage is felt.”

Lodovico Antinori's estate has had an admirable record of consistency in the 1990s: if none of the wines were mind-blowing, all were good, professional products, and even difficult vintages such as 1992 and 1994 gave dignified, well-made wines. Quality definitely seems on the rise, and the 1997, 1998, and 1999 vintages promise to end the decade with a flourish. One key to success has been the professional counseling of Michel Rolland for the winemaking aspects and Andrea Paoletti, perhaps Italy's outstanding agronomist, for the vineyards.