The 2018 Massetino is where elegance meets ease—an expressive, richly fruited wine that wears its pedigree lightly. With ripe cherry, warm spice, and a whisper of oak, it’s generous but graceful, shaped by a cooler, rainier vintage that adds lift and charm. A softer, earlier-drinking style than Masseto, but with unmistakable family resemblance. It’s plush, polished, and already drinking beautifully.

The Wine Advocate | RP 95
Published: May 6, 2021
Drink: 2023-2040

Here's our new little super star from the Tuscan Coast. The 2018 Massetino is Merlot with a dash of Cabernet Franc that makes all the difference in terms of the wine's aromatic precision and its overall staying power. Dark fruit and dried blackberry are followed by exotic spice and campfire ash. The aromas are fluid and relaxed, flowing seamlessly in unison and grace. If you love Masseto, you can't miss the Massetino. This wine offers a whole new take on the world-famous Merlot, and if we are to be honest, it paints a path to where future vintages of Masseto are going as an expression of a vineyard and territory rather than just a strict read of one grape.

The 2018 vintage offers a unique perspective on the wines of Bolgheri, and nowhere is this more evident than the property that houses two powerhouse brands, Masseto and Ornellaia, just off the scenic via Bolgherese at the heart of this dynamic appellation located on the shores of northern Tuscany.

Two of Italy’s most important wines are coming online. The 2018 Bolgheri Superiore Ornellaia is being released now and the 2018 Masseto will hit the market later this year in October. We also have the 2018 Ornellaia Bianco (released now), the 2019 Bolgheri Rosso Le Serre Nuove dell’Ornellaia (to be released in September) and the other wines from the Ornellaia program coming soon. The number two wine in the Masseto program, the 2019 Masseto, will be available in the fall.

The 2018 Bolgheri Superiore Ornellaia sees a historically high percentage of Merlot in the blend. That grape makes up 50% of the wine, with 42% Cabernet Sauvignon and tiny percentages of Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc. “The Merlot in 2018 was a big surprise, and we thought that a little meat was missing on the bones of the Cabernet Sauvignon,” he says.

The Merlot harvest lasted about three weeks, starting at the end of August and lasting until September 25. The estate has various plots of the grape with different conditions and ripening dates and that explains the long harvest window. The percentage of Merlot in the 2018 Bolgheri Rosso Le Serre Nuove dell’Ornellaia is also greater.

The 2019 vintage represents a return to a more classic Bolgheri taste profile with greater fruit weight, structure and soft tannins. The spring season saw cool weather and rain, causing a two-week delay in the growing cycle. The temperatures warmed up considerably by June, and those delays were quickly overcome. Harvest started the second week of September and lasted until October 4th.

The teams at Masseto and Ornellaia are working toward a sustainability certification with a 360-degree approach aimed at bottle glass weight, renewable energy, recyclable packaging, solar energy and making sure that outsourced suppliers comply to the in-house sustainability protocols.

Recent changes in 2019 have been made to reduce bottle weight across many of the wines including the Bolgheri Superiore Ornellaia. The special bottle used for Masseto, based on a unique design and special mold, is quite heavy by today’s standards. Axel does not exclude that the Masseto bottle could also be revised.

Jamessuckling.com | JS 94
Published: Aug 13, 2021

Very ripe and intense with dried berry, cherry and walnut, as well as some tar and smoke. You can see the wood, too. Full-bodied with layers of dark-fruit, vanilla and coffee oak character. Rather flamboyant. Give it time to come together and calm down. Try after 2023, when it will be more together. 

Decanter | D 92
Published: Aug 27, 2020
Drink: 2022-2032

The newly-added second wine of Masseto. Last year's 2017 vintage was just distributed in Italy, so this is the first one on the Place. Enticing as you would expect from this property, with a lot to love. Traces of earthiness, with a rip of balsamic spice and a caress of ripe berry fruits that build through to the finish. Fresh and mouthwatering, with the confident brush strokes that tell you this is a great quality bottle from a vintage that had more rain than the drought summer of 2017. From the younger vines of the Masseto estate, 50% new oak.
Closure: Natural Cork
Body: Full
Grapes: 6% Cabernet Franc 94% Merlot

Jancisrobinson.com | JR 16.5+
Published: Sep 2, 2020
Drink: 2020-2029

The first vintage to be sold through the Bordeaux Place. 94% Merlot and 6% Cabernet Franc. One of the wettest springs in Masseto’s history, with high temperatures in April. Rapid growth led to advanced flowering and progression in the vines, creating disease pressure. A warm and slightly wet August gave more moderate alcohols and larger berry sizes than normal.
Deep ruby. Quite earthy, with immediate ripe red-berry fruit on the nose. Very plummy with just a hint of creaminess. Rich fruit on the palate, but soft in tannin. Perfect for a 'second wine', with that fleshy cherry fruit and a hint of chocolate. A little warm on the back end. A spherical, approachable but long wine.

Masseto.com

CLIMATE AND VINTAGE 
After the drought vintage 2017, winter 2018 seemed to indicate that things were getting back to the norm, with cold weather and even a few days of snow which we had not seen for years. Things changed quickly from march onwards with one of the rainiest springs in Masseto's history. At the same time temperatures, particularly in April, were higher than average, which led to a rapid vegetative growth, culminating in flowering which occurred one full week earlier than normal. Precise timing and presence of all our workforce was required to keep pace with the vines and operate shoot thinning and positioning of the canopy. While temperatures came back to the norm in May, the high amount of rain created a high level of disease pressure, especially for downy mildew, which put the nerves of vine growers to the test for the rest of the growing season. Only through perfect organization and the meticulous work carried out in the vineyard during the few days without rain, was it possible to keep canopies and grapes healthy. 

In July mostly sunny and warm weather allowed for a little rest before v?raison stepped in timely around the 22 July. August was warm with a bit of rain around the 15th, which prevented the appearance of any major hydric stress. Sugars and acidity moved at a slow pace while berry sizes grew a bit more than usual.

Harvest started on 31st August with the youngest gobelet-trained vines and then stopped for one week until we started picking the older vines from the 6th September onwards. Differences between parcels within Masseto were particularly marked, leading to a very long harvest that was concluded only on 4th October and yielded 9 different vinification lots.

VINIFICATION AND AGEING
Every single lot of the vineyard was vinified separately. The large berry sizes lead us to frequently operate saign?es on the tanks. At the same time, it was important to extract softly to avoid any rusticity in the tannic structure. The innovations we put into Masseto?s new cellar proved to be extremely helpful in this. The use of gravity flow to fill the tanks perfectly preserved the integrity of the fruit, while the conical shaped concrete tanks allowed us to extract gently with a limited amount of pump overs and extend maceration times for up to four weeks at a temperature of 28-30C Malolactic fermentation took place in barrels, with 50% new oak. After the first 12 months of ageing the wine was blended and racked back to its barrels for a further 3 months, before bottling. The wine then remained in the bottle until release in October 2020. 

TASTING NOTES
Harvested under ideal conditions, the vintage 2018 is characterized by its particularly harmonious and balanced profile. Massetino shows a dark, purple-tinged ruby colour. The nose is very expressive, dominated by vibrant and ripe cherry fruit, spicy and balsamic overtones and a touch of toasty oak. The palate is elegant, with a seamless and silky texture, polished tannins that support a bright and pure expression of fruit. The finish shows hints of vanilla that lead into a minerally sensation of freshness.