Tenuta dell'Ornellaia, Masseto, Massetino, 2024
Tenuta dell'Ornellaia, Masseto, Massetino, 2024
- 75cl
- 15%
- Red Still
- Merlot, Cabernet Franc
- Organic
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Optimal drinking window: 2030 - 2045
Est. delivery in 2027
Massetino is the second wine of Masseto, which is itself one of Italy's most mythologised Merlots — a Bolgheri hillside that has spent thirty-odd years making the case that Pomerol isn't the only place on earth where this grape reaches genuine greatness.
If Massetino were a character, it’d be the mischievous sibling—born of Masseto but forging its own path with swagger. The 2024 vintage was notably warm but with well-timed Atlantic influence, and what lands in the glass is a wine of considerable plushness and structural poise. Mostly Merlot with a dash of Cabernet Franc, aged in French oak, it has all the sumptuousness the name implies without tipping into excess.
What the critics say:
"Super tasty, cumin, liquorice root, sweet crushed blackberry and raspberry fruit, brilliant quality, depth and intensity, with a lift and cushion of air underneath, hugely silky tannins with moreish length on the palate. Marco Balsimelli Technical Director and winemaker, Marchesi Frescobaldi owners."
The Masseto vineyard sits on a south-facing hillside at around 100 metres above sea level, just inland from the Tyrrhenian coast near Bolgheri. The defining feature is its unusually deep, blue-grey clay — galestro this is not. That clay retains moisture during the dry Tuscan summers and gives the Merlot here a density and coolness it rarely achieves on sandier coastal soils. The maritime influence moderates temperatures and extends the growing season, which in warmer years like 2024 is particularly valuable for preserving freshness.
Massetino is bottled as Toscana IGT, the same broad classification that covers most of Tuscany's Super Tuscans. The DOC Bolgheri exists for the area's blended reds and whites, but wines made from single varieties outside those permitted blends — or from parcels that producers prefer to classify independently — typically opt for the IGT designation. It's a category with no real stylistic guardrails, which suits estates like Ornellaia perfectly: the freedom to do exactly what the vineyard demands without bureaucratic compromise.
The 2024 growing season in Tuscany was defined by a cool, wet spring followed by a summer that never quite committed to the heat Sangiovese craves — periodic rain events through the summer kept growers watchful and selective work in the vineyard essential. Those who managed canopies well and harvested at the right moment came out ahead; those who hesitated paid for it. It was a vintage that rewarded attentiveness rather than simply good fortune, and the best producers — particularly in Chianti Classico and Montalcino — rose to that challenge.
What landed in the cellar was fresher and more lifted than the riper, more muscular style that warmer years like 2022 tend to produce. Sangiovese shows bright acidity and firm structure with real energy behind it — less about sheer density, more about definition and length. It is too early to draw firm conclusions on the very best Brunello and Riserva releases, which will need time to resolve, but the Rosso and Chianti-level wines are already drinking well and offering genuine pleasure without demanding patience.
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Tenuta dell'Ornellaia
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