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.

Wow. Fabulous aromas of currants, rosemary, mint and orange peel. Perfect nose. Full body with perfectly integrated tannins. It's long and incredible with tangerine, toasted-oak, berry, terracotta and chocolate flavors. It lasts for minutes on the palate. This needs at least five years to soften but so spellbinding now.

The nose is really coming together here, revealing ripe, sweet cherry, blackberry, cedar, graphite and spice notes. Powerful, yet retains a sense of elegance, with a smooth texture and a terrific aftertaste that echoes dark cherry, cigar box and spice elements. Merlot.—Non-blind Masseto vertical (October 2017). BS

2011 was a vintage where everything was ahead of schedule, 'incredibly good for concentration,' said Axel Heinz, managing director of the estate. Earthy tones with forest floor aromas melt into bramble fruits and milk chocolate. The full-bodied palate is loaded with Mediterranean herbs and cedar wood flavours. The tannins are velvety, ripe and just a bit tauter than usual, accompanied by refreshing acidity. At the moment it comes across as quite closed down and the aftertaste is not totally convincing, however its stunning concentration could evolve in slightly different ways. Drinking Window: 2021 - 2035
Tasted by: Aldo Fiordelli (at Masseto winery, Bolgheri, 18 Dec 2020)
Part of Masseto vertical: 10 vintages back to 1988

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.

2011 was a vintage where everything was ahead of schedule, 'incredibly good for concentration,' said Axel Heinz, managing director of the estate. Earthy tones with forest floor aromas melt into bramble fruits and milk chocolate. The full-bodied palate is loaded with Mediterranean herbs and cedar wood flavours. The tannins are velvety, ripe and just a bit tauter than usual, accompanied by refreshing acidity. At the moment it comes across as quite closed down and the aftertaste is not totally convincing, however its stunning concentration could evolve in slightly different ways.

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.

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)