1996 Masseto
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Tasting notes
This was considered a great vintage like 1999. It was considered an early vintage then when harvest started on 8 September! It was a difficult vintage elsewhere in Tuscany. Mature garnet with a ruby rim. Very perfumed and less dense than some vintages. A little pyrazine effect on the nose and much more transparent than the 1999. Really rather glorious, lifted and sweet. Definitely transparent and just lovely now! Aromatic and seductive. Gentle texture. Not for the long term but fresh and gentle. The juiciest of the lot. (JR)
Critic scores
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Jancis Robinson MW
Jancis Robinson MW
More reviews and scores
One of the latest harvests at Masseto, still fresh, classic and balanced with older Merlot fruit character of wild strawerry and brambled autumnal blackberry. Waves of fragrant aromatics of tobacco leaf, truffle, violet, smoked earth, peat, tar and soy. Ready to drink, beginning to soften around the edges, 100% new oak.
The 1996 Masseto is austere, wild and savory, none of which are especially typical. Even so, the 1996 is endowed with considerable depth. Graphite, grilled herbs, game, smoke, licorice and tobacco add to its wild feel. The 1996 is not especially refined, but it has a ton of character. It was a mostly cool and rainy year, with just a bit of heat at the end.
In 1996 the flowering was delayed and the summer was on the cool side. Only a spell of heat towards the end of the season allowed the fruit to ripen. As a result, the 1996 Masseto is both fresh, but also rather compact. It possesses gorgeous, well-delineated aromatics and plenty of complexity but not the depth or richness to improve materially from here.
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.