Masseto 2020 (OWC 3)

Description

By Decanter in 2023 (D100)

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.

By The Drink Business in 2023 (CH100)

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.

By Wine Independent in 2023 (WI99)

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!

By Vinous in 2023 (AG98)

The 2020 Masseto is superb. Bright and vibrant in the glass, the 2020 offers up an exciting mix of dark-toned fruit, mocha, spice, leather, tobacco, cedar and a kiss of French oak. Lively acids and Franc aromatics lend vibrancy throughout. The Franc is so evident today. This is exceptionally polished and sophisticated, albeit a touch slender relative to most years. In 2020, Masseto is more finesse than power.