Masseto

Masseto, 2020

Name: Masseto
Brand: Masseto
Price: 1925.53 GBP

98/100

Inside Bordeaux

99/100

The Wine Independent

98/100

Vinous

Available Vintages

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in bond

Broking

2020
3x75cl
DP
£1,925.53

Justerini & Brooks Tasting note

The 2020 Masseto now sees new DNA with a touch of Cabernet Franc added to this celebrated Merlot-based icon wine. This is a vintage of enormous richness and density, and everything about the wine is taken up a notch or two (including the bottle glass weight and the 15% alcohol content). But Axel Heinz and his team are well prepared for the hot vintages like 2020, and changes to farming and canopy management ensure even ripening. This wine is always hard to analyze in its youth. It needs many more years to soften and flesh out. Give it time.

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GUARANTEED PROVENANCE

Provenance in fine wine

When it comes to purchasing wine, provenance is of upmost importance. A wine’s history – where it’s sourced from and how it’s been stored – can have an enormous influence on the eventual enjoyment it provides. At Justerini & Brooks, we can trace nearly every case back to the domaine, estate or Château it originally came from; we ship from over 200 wine producers throughout the world.

Wines not bought directly from the vineyard are either sourced from trusted suppliers, with whom we share the same philosophy and rigour in buying, or from our own network of Cellarers customers. These customers’ wines are stored in optimal conditions in Octavian Corsham and, in the vast majority of cases, have been stored by us since the wine was first shipped. We do not purchase wine from auctions.

We feel it is equally important to for our customers that the case they buy and leave in storage with us is exactly the same case they subsequently have delivered. This may sound obvious and straightforward, yet we are one of very few merchants to have taken measures to ensure this.

We have created a system where every case is independent, thereby ensuring a trail of ownership and peace of mind for every customer.

The Journey

Justerinis ensures that every case of wine stored with Cellarers (Wines) Ltd has a unique identifier and customer’s name, almost unheard of in the industry as it is expensive to administer. These details are printed and placed on every case which is logged and recorded under your account name and kept in the world’s most renowned storage facility, Octavian Corsham.

This information is sent from our systems to the warehouse every day to ensure the trail of ownership is verified and upheld.

While customer reserves are stored in Corsham, our physical stocks are kept in Hoddesdon, further providing a geographical separation between customers’ wines with Cellarers and Justerinis’ own stock.

Further Reassurance

Cellarers (Wines) Ltd is a legally separate limited company from Justerini & Brooks which currently holds approximately £450 million worth of customer reserves. It is fully insured to catastrophic loss. Many merchants will state that wine in their care is fully insured, but in reality this is on an individual case basis with insufficient cover for total loss as this is prohibitively expensive. The cover provided by Octavian and Justerini & Brooks is unmatched.

Cellarers (Wines) Ltd is audited by PwC every year.

Critic Reviews

98/100

Jane Anson,

Inside Bordeaux

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).

drinking window 2028 - 2042

date of review 08/2023

99/100

Lisa Perrotti-Brown,

The Wine Independent

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!

drinking window 2025 - 2050

date of review 08/2023

98/100

Antonio Galloni,

Vinous

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.

drinking window 2027 - 2045

date of review 08/2023

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15%

allergen information

This product may contain sulphites. Full allergen information is available upon request, please call our Customer Relations Team on +44 (0)20 7484 6430.