Ornellaia - Masseto Wine Dinner: Peering into the mind of Axel Heinz, the estate's winemaker

Masseto is one of my favorite wines, as evidenced by its frequency in my cellar and the number of mentions that it has received in my social media posts. As a fanboy, then, I had to be in attendance at the Antonio Galloni/Vinous Ornellaia and Masseto Retrospective (1995 - 2010) held at Bouley Test Kitchen in New York City on December 5th. And, ... Axel Heinz, the winemaker for both labels, would be guiding the attendees through the tasting of these, the greatest vintages of the estate (For the uninitiated, Masseto is a 100% Merlot wine while Ornellaia is a Bordeaux blend. Both wines  are currently produced at the Ornellaia estate in Tuscany's Bolgheri wine zone.).

The kitchen at Bouley Test kitchen

In his opening remarks, Antonio Galloni spoke to the genesis of the tasting. Five years ago he had organized a Masseto vertical which went up to the 1986 vintage, the earliest in the label's history. It had been relatively easy to get Axel to lead that event. Not so this tasting. Antonio had to work overtime to convince Axel to do this dinner because the estate does not like to show the two wines in opposition to each other. In his opening remarks, Axel validated Antonio's comment about showing the wines together. The estate views the labels as two separate and distinct wines and treats them as such.

Axel Heinz speaking to some of the attendees
prior to the start of the tasting

As it relates to Masseto, Axel sees the wine as almost an accident of nature. When Ornellaia began, a few estates in Tuscany had already planted Merlot. Ornellaia felt that it had to do something to differentiate itself from the 400-lb gorilla in the room (Sassicaia) and that imperative drove the development of Masseto.

The early efforts in this direction were spearheaded by Andre Tschelistcheff, the noted Russian-American enologist, who found the hill with the grey clay and encouraged the Ornellaia team to plant Merlot thereon. The first harvest was in 1986 and the resultant wine was labeled Merlot. The name Masseto appeared on the label for the first time with the 1987 vintage.

With the success of Masseto, the estate did not want to use the Merlot grapes from that vineyard in the Ornellaia blend. It was a full 10 years before Merlot vines planted in other parts of the property attained the maturity to warrant their inclusion in the blend.

Axel sees the Masseto vineyard as very complex (I have assessed the vineyard in a previous post), a complexity akin to Burgundy's Clos Vougeot in that it has three levels and the soils are heterogeneous. In some vintages, they end up with as much as eight separate wines which have to be combined into the final blend (The estate harvests, vinifies, and ages individual plots separately and deploys a team to compose the final blend prior to bottling.).

Approximately 100 ha of vineyards are dedicated to grapes for the Ornellaia blend with different soils, elevations, and expositions being the order of the day. Ornellaia is more of a left-bank wine and Masseto more right bank (if one thinks in terms of Bordeaux) and Axel feels blessed in that being in Bolgheri gives him a chance to employ both winemaking styles in the same location.

I sat next to Axel during the course of the dinner and took advantage to gain his perspective on a number of winemaking issues. One area of exploration was optimal picking time. He was adamant that you need to taste the grapes in order to make a determination as to the best time to pick. In his view, no amount of data can substitute for the taste of the juice on your palate and the crunch (or not) of the seeds between your teeth. At Ornellaia they like to pick ripe with excellent aromatics without pressing through into over-ripeness.

He talked about the difficulty of working the clay soils of the Masseto vineyards. In periods of rain, the soil absobs the water and becomes very heavy. After it has become saturated, pooling becomes a problem. When the soils become water-logged, they have to leave it alone for a few days before returning to work at it again.

I asked him about the potential for a cru Masseto wine; that is, a wine drawn exclusively from one of the three areas of the Masseto vineyard. He saw that as very unlikely. Even though there are, from time to time, temptations regarding some of the components from the middle vineyard, it is the balance that these three vineyards bring in the bottle that is the essence of Masseto. He indicated that many people have told them that they should make a Cab Franc wine but they feel that Ornellaia would be hurt if they went down that path.

In closing this part of my discussion of the tasting, it should be mentioned that the estate is currently building a separate winery to support the production of Masseto. This is the ultimate gesture in showing the world that these are two truly distinct wines. While the field operations will still be conducted by a single team, the two winery operations will be separate. According to Axel, if you make a visit request to Masseto, you will go to the Masseto winery and taste Masseto wines; and likewise for an Ornellaia visit.

I will go into the details of the tasting and dinner in my next post.

©Wine -- Mise en abyme

Italian Merlots: Tenuta dell'Ornellaia's Masseto (Bolgheri, Tuscany)

Any discussion of Merlot wines generally begins with a deep bow in the direction of Bordeaux's right bank and wines such as Le Pin, Pétrus, L'Eglise-Clinet and a host of others that are produced in Pomerol and neighboring St. Emilion.  And that acclaim is justified.  But Merlot wines from Bordeaux no longer have a monopoly on greatness as a number of small-production, mono-varietals reared in the Bolgheri region have begun to gain critical acclaim.  Names such as Masseto (Wine Spectator 100 points in 2001), Redigaffi (Wine Spectator 100 points in 1997 and 2000), and Messorio (Wine Spectator 100 points, 2004), among others, have grabbed the attention of critics and wine collectors alike and, in so doing, have led to steady value appreciation for those lucky enough to own these wines.

I will be exploring these Italian Merlots in a series of upcoming posts beginning with today's post on Tenuta dell'Ornellaia's Masseto, an estate which I had the privilege of visiting last year with a Bordeaux Index team.

The Ornellaia estate encompasses 180 hectares -- 97 of which are planted to vine -- divided between two properties: the 37 hectares of vineyards and the winery on Via Bolgherese and a 60-hectare property called Bellaria which is located to the north of Bolgheri.  The Via Bolgherese property is divided into a 30.37-hectare vineyard dedicated to fruit for non-Masseto Ornellaia wines and a 6.63 hectare vineyard dedicated to the growth of Merlot grapes for the fabled Masseto wine.

The Masseto vineyard lies on soil comprised of thin silty clay and broken rock fragments. There is some confusion as to the planting date of the vines with the Masseto website stating the year 1984 as the planting date and other sources (see hermitagewine.com/masseto) using 1981 as the planting date.  The older date seems to be more reasonable as the first vintage of the wine is identified as being offered on the market in 1986.

The Masseto vineyard is sub-divided into three distinct sections based on soil characteristics and resultant wines.  The lowest section of the vineyard is called Masseto Junior and its soils are characteristically a clay-sand mix.  According to the winery the wines produced frrom grapes grown in this section are lighter and serve to smooth out the tannic roughness associated with the wines from the other sections as well as contributing to the overall delicacy of the final product.  The middle portion of the vineyard is called Masseto Centrale and has the highest levels of Pliocene clays.  Wines produced from these grapes are powerful, concentrated, and tannic.  The top portion of the vineyard is located 120 meters above sea level and the soil here consists of loose clays and sand along with pebbles.  The soil here is the shallowest in the overall vineyard and the grapes tend to ripen earliest.  The wines produced from this section of the vineyard are dense and linear.

Source: masseto.com

The Tenuta dell'Ornellaia winemaker is Alex Heinz and the winery's philosophy is "quality without compromise."  The quality begins in the vineyard and continues throughout the winemaking process.  Grapes are hand-harvested and subjected to a three-part selection process which ensures that only the best berries make it to the fermentation tanks. Suspect grapes are selected-out in the vineyard and before and after de-stemming.

Fermentation is conducted in temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks and oak vats with each block fermented separately.  Blocks are aged in wooden barriques for one year prior to being blended into the final wine by the winemaker.  The barriques of choice are procured from the Massif Central area in France and have a medium toast.  After blending, the wines are returned to the barriques for an additional year of aging.  Specific lots of wines may be clarified prior to bottling depending on their characteristics.  The wines are aged for an additional year in bottle before being released to the market.

Source: masseto.com

Source: masseto.com

Annual production of Masseto averages around 30,000 bottles and the wine sells for around $450 upon release.  Recent vintages that are especially well regarded by the critics include the 2001, 2004, 2006, and 2008. Axel Heinz, the winemaker, in a Decanter interview (Ornellaia, May 2013) said "When young, Masseto can seem monolithic, but it often shows much more complexity with age."

Masseto has the distinction of being the first Italian wine to be sold through the Place de Bordeaux, a marketplace ttraditionally reserved for First Growths and a small number of foreign icon wines. Other foreign wines sold through this marketplace include Opus One and Almaviva, both estates associated with Baron Rothschild (decanter.com 11/18/08).  The first Masseto vintage offered through this marketplace was the 2006.

On a personal note, this is, for me, one of the great wines of the world.  I have had the pleasure of tasting vintages from the mid-90s and and have been consistently blown away by how elegantly they transit time.  Our team tasted the 1996 vintage during one of our many local tastings and the notes talk of a terroir-driven wine with coffee notes.  The wine was smooth with great texture and complexity.  It was concentrated but not weighty.

Masseto has been referred to as the Pétrus of Italy and it is a moniker that, in my opinion, is not without merit.  Will there come a day when we refer to Pétrus as the Masseto of France?


©Wine -- Mise en abyme

Tenuta dell'Ornellaia Visit

The first winery we were scheduled to visit in our Bordeaux Index Taste of Tuscany was Tenuta dell'Ornellaia, one of the stars of Bolgheri DOC.  We set off at 9:15 am from our hotel on a bright, sunny morning and this made for a beautiful drive through the countryside.  We headed west on Strada di Grande Communicazione, then south along A12 and SS1, then east on Localita San Guido -- noted for the serene and stately cypress trees lining both sides of the street -- before making a right turn into Via Bolgherese and then a left turn into the Tenuta dell'Ornellaia entrance.  We were let in through the gate and met on the other side by Viola, our winery tour guide.  Viola showed us where to park and after we disembarked she began the tour with remarks on the history of the estate.

The winery was founded in 1980 by Lodovica Antinori.  In the late 1990s, Robert Mondavi took a minority stake in the enterprise and owned it fully by 2002.  Mondavi brought in the Frescobaldi's as 50% partners shortly after gaining control and they acquired full control by buying the Mondavi shares when Constellation Brands bought Robert Mondavi's holdings.

According to Viola, the estate encompasses 180 hectares, 97 of which are planted to vine, and are divided between two properties.  The facility on Via Bolgherese has 37 hectares of vineyards and the winery and is the location of the original estate.  This particular property backs up against the Sassicaia property and shares many of its characteristics.  There is another 60-hectare property called Bellaria which is located to the north of Bolgherei.  Our tour plan called for visiting both vineyards and the winery after which we would lunch in the winery dining room.  So we piled into the van and made our way to Bellaria.

We drove back the way we came on Via Bolgherese to "Cypress Avenue" and turned right to continue our transit of this wonderful thoroughfare.  We turned left into the road at the end of the Castello di Bolgheri vineyard and continued along that road until we arrived at Bellaria.  Once on the property we drove to an elevated wooden platform from which we could view the entire vineyard and the sea in the distance.  Breathtaking.

As we took in the view, Viola peppered us with vinous tidbits.  The vineyards are planted at elevations ranging between 50 and 120 meters above sea level on slopes ranging between 5 and 20 degrees.  Here at Bellaria, the hills above the vineyards protect the vines from cold winds while the sea moderates the temperature and reflects sunlight, a boon to grape ripening.  The soil composition changes every 500 meters or so and dictates the estate's planting strategy: Petit Verdot on sandy soils; Cabernet Sauvignon on clay-limestone soils; and Merlot on clay soils.  The average age of the vines at Bellaria is 8 years.

At the conclusion of the Bellaria visit we retraced our course to the original property.  The main property is divided into a 30-hectare vineyard dedicated to Ornellaia fruit and 7 hectares dedicated to fruit for Masseto.  The soil in the Ornellaia vineyard is reddened by the presence of iron and yields high-tannin, age-worthy wines.  The first parcel was planted in this vineyard in 1982.  The Merlot grapes for the Masseto are planted on clay soils.  The average age of the vines on this property is 15 years.

The Tenuta dell'Ornellaia winemaker is Alex Heinz and the winery's philosophy is "quality without compromise."  The quality begins in the vineyard and continues throughout the winemaking process.  Grapes are hand-harvested and subjected to a three-part selection process which ensures that only the best berries make it to the fermentation tanks.  Grapes from the estate's 60 parcels (37 hectares of Cabernet Sauvignon, 38 hectares of Merlot, 12 hectares of Cabernet Franc, 10 hectares of Petit Verdot) are vinified and stored separately prior to the construction of the final blend.

The estate's first wine is Ornellaia, a Cabernet Sauvignon (60%), Merlot (25%), Cabernet Franc (12%), and Petit Verdot (3%) blend.  This wine is fermented (natural yeasts) and macerated in stainless steel tanks and then transferred to oak barriques (70% new, 30% second year) where malolactic fermentation occurs.  The wine is aged in oak for 12 months before final blending after which it is bottled and aged for an additional 12 months.  The 1998 vintage of this wine was named wine of the year by Wine Spectator in 2001.

The second wine is Le Serre Nuove, a Cabernet Sauvignon (35%), Merlot (50%), Cabernet Franc (10%), and Petit Verdot blend.  This wine is made from grapes that did not make the Ornellaia cut as well as fruit from the Bellaria vineyard.  It is fermented in stainless steel tanks and macerated for 30 days.  Malolactic fermentation occurs both in the tanks and in barriques.  The wines are aged for 12 months before final blending and are then aged in oak for an additional 6 months before bottling.

Le Volte is a 50% Sangiovese, 20% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 30% Merlot blend, with the Sangiovese fruit sourced externally.  Alcoholic and malolactic fermentation take place in stainless steel tanks before the wine is transferred to 2- to 4-year-old barriques for 10 months of aging.

The jewel in the Ornellaia crown is the 100% Merlot Masseto.  This wine has received both critical and pecuniary acclaim.  It is fermented in oak vats and stainless steel tanks with malolactic fermentation in new oak barriques where it is aged for 24 months.

At the conclusion of the winery tour, we tasted some of the wines and then repaired to the dining room for lunch.  The traditional Tuscan lunch was pleasing to the eye and, especially so, to the palate and was paired

impecably with examples of the estate's offerings.

All in all, a super Tuscan day.