tenuta dell'ornellaia
TENUTA DELL'ORNELLAIA Masseto, Toscana IGT 2017 Bottle
Please update your details
In order to bid at auction, a delivery address, billing address and valid credit card is required.
Update detailsPlease update your details
Please update your details
In order to bid at auction, a delivery address, billing address and valid credit card is required.
Update detailsYou haven’t met the minimum bid amount
Some technical error while placing
Total: + % BPA =
Reserve not met
Auction has been closed
About this wine
Tenuta Dell'Ornellaia Masseto, Toscana IGT
Masseto is a single-vineyard Merlot from the Tuscan coast, grown on a compact clay hillside near Bolgheri. It was first produced in 1986 and inspired by the success of Bordeaux varietals in the region but stands apart for its site—poor in nutrients, with excellent drainage and cooling sea breezes. The vineyard is divided into small parcels and harvested by hand over several passes to capture optimal ripeness. Fermentation takes place in concrete and oak, with maceration tailored to the conditions of each block. The wine is aged in French oak barriques (100% new) for around 24 months, followed by a further year in bottle before release. Masseto offers dense black fruit, dark earth, balsamic lift and firm yet polished tannin, with structure to cellar over decades. Now produced under its winery and label, Masseto remains one of Italy’s most collected and traded wines on the global fine wine market.
Wine Details
Classification and Scores
Taste Profile
Winery and Region
Delivery and Returns
All wine bought and sold through LANGTONS is held securely in our state-of-the-art, temperature-controlled National Warehouse, just outside of Melbourne, ensuring fast and efficient shipping to your nominated address Australia-wide.
Shipping Charges Within Australia
All orders placed are subject to a flat shipping fee as outlined below:
Metro Areas | Regional Areas |
$18.50 | $23 |
Find our more about our Delivery Options and Returns and Refunds Policy
Expert Review
Monica Larner
The Masseto 2017 Masseto puts on another exhilarating, knock-out performance for the third year in a row. The Masseto vineyard is a triangular-shaped plot tucked in at the back of the same property that houses the Ornellaia vineyards and winery. This special site is located at the base of the mountains that rise gently from the Tyrrhenian Sea, with the picturesque silhouette of the Castiglioncello castle at the top. The vines are planted at an altitude of 80 to 100 meters above sea level in blue clay soils that are unique to Bolgheri. That ideal position opens the vineyards to soft breezes, proximity to the sea, long daylight hours and cool diurnal shifts from the protective wall of low mountains at the back. It's a little garden of Merlot Eden. The center of the vineyard now is home to the new Masseto winery and an adjacent tasting room built into a pre-existing farmhouse. This wine was made in the old winery (the existing Ornellaia winery). Fermentation kicks off in a combination of steel and oak tanks before the wine is racked over to barrique, where it rests for two years. The wine then goes into bottle for 12 months before its release. Like most vintages of Masseto tasted this early in the game, the oak is omnipresent, and it grounds the wine in terms of texture and structure. It is powerful, but that's always the case with Masseto (this vintage records a 15.5% alcohol content). I tasted this wine next to the decidedly more playful Massetino, and the Masseto moves over the palate with substantial fruit weight and concentration gained over the course of this hot and dry growing season (which produced smaller, richer and more compact berries). Perhaps, what this vintage lacks is that profound varietal character that we saw in recent vintages like 2016 and 2015. If concerned that the hot vintage would draw out too many ripe fruit tones, the oak serves to soften some of the more volatile components of the fruit. Those distinctive notes of macchia mediterranea (wild bush) that I always associate with Masseto are less present in this vintage. You feel the oak tannins on the finish with toast and vanilla that will certainly shed as the wine ages. In fact, I went back to taste the wine 12 hours later, and they had already softened considerably. This 2017 vintage will be released in October 2020.
97 points, Wine Advocate (May 2020)
Founded in 1981 by Lodovico Antinori and named after the grove of flowering ash trees that surround the winery, the estate over looks the Tyrrhenian Sea with views stretching to islands of the Tuscan Archipelago and as far as Corsica. Sitting adjacent Tenuta San Guido (producer of Sassicaia) this is one of the estates that helped put Bolgehri on the map, along with Lodovico’s older brother’s Solaia and Tiganello, as well as Sassicaia. There are 3 wines in the range, the flagship Ornellaia; its second label, Le Serre Nuove; and its entry-level gem, Le Volte.