The 2011 Masseto is pure power and polish wrapped in one unforgettable bottle. With bold aromas of currants, rosemary, and mint, and layers of chocolate, berries, and Mediterranean herbs, this vintage doesn’t hold back. Picked earlier than usual after a hot, dry summer, it’s rich, intense, and built to age. Already a perfect score from James Suckling, it’s a wine that’s both commanding and seductive—ready to impress now or evolve beautifully for years to come.

Jamessuckling.com | JS 100
Published: Oct 20, 2014

Wow. Fabulous aromas of currants, rosemary, mint and orange peel. Perfect nose. Full body with perfectly integrated tannins. It's long and incredible with tangerine, toasted-oak, berry, terracotta and chocolate flavors. It lasts for minutes on the palate. This needs at least five years to soften but so spellbinding now.

The Wine Advocate | RP 95
Published: Oct 31, 2014
Drink: 2016-2035

From Italy's most celebrated 7-hectare plot of Merlot, the 2011 Masseto is a wine of grand and lofty ambitions that happily materialize in the glass. This wine delivers on all the many promises it makes. First is the exceptional quality of the bouquet with seamless integration of dark fruit to spice, to chocolate, to Mediterranean herb. The aromas are presented in kaleidoscope effect so that many bright colors blend into one. Second, is the mouthfeel that is as supple, rich and persistent as you should expect of a wine of this pedigree. Lastly, is the wine's aging potential that is already evident in terms of the integrated acidity and the richness of the tannins. In fact, the tannins are absolutely gorgeous here: They are silky, refined and delightful. It's not the greatest Masseto ever made, but it performs beautifully nonetheless.

Decanter | D 95
Published: Dec 18, 2020
Drink: 2021-2035

2011 was a vintage where everything was ahead of schedule, 'incredibly good for concentration,' said Axel Heinz, managing director of the estate. Earthy tones with forest floor aromas melt into bramble fruits and milk chocolate. The full-bodied palate is loaded with Mediterranean herbs and cedar wood flavours. The tannins are velvety, ripe and just a bit tauter than usual, accompanied by refreshing acidity. At the moment it comes across as quite closed down and the aftertaste is not totally convincing, however its stunning concentration could evolve in slightly different ways.
Closure: Cork
Alcohol: 14.50%
Body: Full

Jancisrobinson.com | JR 17.5
Published: Dec 1, 2016
Drink: 2016-2023

A warm spring accelerated budburst by 10 days. Cooler weather in June and July then applied a brake. Picked very early, after a hot dry summer, from 25 August to 1 September. Unusually, all the fruit went into the main wine.
Big, beefy, baked and broad. A bit austere and dry. Big and less graceful on the finish then some vintages. This wine is impressive more than pleasurable. Awkward. A bit overripe with a grainy, jagged finish.

Masseto.com

To open a bottle is to unleash a liquid kaleidoscope. A rare combination of sumptuous opulence and polished elegance.
As a tribute to its rugged force, its softness, and the debt it owes to the soil from which it rises, Masseto was named after the rock-hard clusters of blue clay called ‘massi’ that form on the vineyard’s surface.

- 2011 -

2011 was characterised by warm, dry weather and a much earlier than average harvest. A rainy winter was followed by a warmer-than average spring that brought forward the start of vine growth by 10 days.

Budbreak was particularly rapid and uniform, always a good indicator of a fine growing year.

Then cooler weather in June and July slowed vine development. The expected rains arrived on schedule after flowering and during veraison, encouraging optimal cluster growth, aromatic intensification, and exceptionally generous accumulation of polyphenols. A heat spell at the end of August further quickened ripening, resulting in the earliest harvest to date in the history of Masseto.

Harvest began on 25th August and finished on 1st September, bringing in a total of 5 different lots.