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. Winemaker Gaia Cinnirella.
100 points, Georgina Hindle, Decanter (Jul 2023)
Intense aromas of ripe herbs, plums, green coffee beans, and hazelnuts. Turns to crushed berries and orange peel. Full-bodied with superb concentration and fine, velvety tannins that run the length of the wine. It's big but agile and gorgeous. Merlot. What a wine! Best after 2030.
99 points, James Suckling (Aug 2023)
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!
99 points, Lisa Perrotti-Brown, Wine Independent (Aug 2023)
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.
98 points, Antonio Galloni, Vinous (Aug 2023)
Raspberry plum colour, smooth and tender tannins, with fragrant, toasted cumin notes, deliciously drawn out flavours of supple raspberry, pomegranate, damson puree, with iris flowers as it opens. The whole thing is mouthwatering, juicy, intense and concentrated, utterly captivating. The Cabernet Franc amount has increased since its introduction with the 2019 vintage, and with it we are seeing a slight sculpting of the Masseto character. Harvest finished by September 16. This was a hot summer, followed by cooler temperatures during harvest, before heat arrived again mid September. 100% new oak, with 12 months in bottle after barrel ageing before release. Frescobaldi family owners, with Gaia Cinnirella winemaker since the 2021 harvest, so overseeing the ageing of this wine, with director Axel Heinz (with one of his final full vintages before heading to Bordeaux in 2023).
98 points, Jane Anson (Aug 2023)
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