2011 Masseto
Buying options
Tasting notes
An extremely hot and early year, giving a strong contrast with the 2014. Immediately exuberant on the nose, with cinammon spice, rosemary herbs, cocoa beans and Autumnal leaf aromatics. The tannins that are less generous than in some vintages, and it significantly improves with time in the glass, when the depth of texture and expression in the black cherry and cassis fruits become clear. An early harvest, with the fruit brought in over just three days at the end of August, this is concentrated and still taut at 10 years old. 100% new oak.
Critic scores
Average Score
Jancis Robinson MW
Antonio Galloni, Vinous
More reviews and scores
The 2011 Masseto is very clearly the product of a warm year. In that sense, it reminds me of the 2003. Black cherry, mocha, chocolate, licorice, espresso and smoke are all super concentrated. The intense heat of the year is also felt in the wine’s large-scaled tannins. Overall, this is a very good wine for the year. When it comes to extreme vintages, however, there is no question Masseto does better in cooler, not hotter, years. Extremely warm, dry conditions resulted in a harvest that started on August 25 and was finished by September 1, the earliest on record here.
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. (JR)
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.
About the producer
Established in the 1980s by Lodovico Antinori on the advice of André Tchelistcheff, Masseto was one of Tuscany’s first pure Merlot wines. Sibling to Ornellaia, the Super Tuscan is often considered the Pétrus of Italy – offering powerful, perfumed wines that are highly sought-after by collectors.