An architectural masterpiece perfectly represents and embodies the Estate’s
New York, NY, April 22, 2019 – Masseto, Italy’s most collectible estate wine, is elated to have just unveiled a brand-new winery that brings together stunning design and uncompromised functionality devoted to producing the Estate’s highly-acclaimed, single-vineyard wine.
Carved deep into the ancient blue clay that underpins the vineyard, the Masseto winery is a physical and symbolic tribute to the Estate’s history and rapid evolution from intuition about the hidden potential of a vineyard site to an internationally-acclaimed wine.
“The Winery is a tribute to the past, present and future of Masseto. It celebrates the incredible story of a wine that was never meant to exist,” said Masseto CEO Giovanni Geddes da Filicaja. “Years of planning and effort have been dedicated to building the right home for Masseto. One that consolidates three decades of experience, where every aspect has been designed to meet the winemaking team’s highly detailed requirements.”
Technical facilities in the subterranean building have been stripped back to minimalistic, low-impact basics. “Nothing is missing, and there is no more than necessary,” said Masseto Estate Director Axel Heinz. He stressed that winemaking at Masseto, which balances austerity, modernity and tradition, will remain unchanged. “Our winemaking is about reducing the process, reducing intervention, with a ‘less is more’ philosophy.”
Designed by architects Hikaru Mori and Maurizio Zito of the ZitoMori Studio, the building represents and reinforces Masseto’s discreet but powerful identity. Above ground, only the low lines of the grape reception area and the restored Masseto House emerge from the hill.
Built to incorporate a gravity flow winemaking process, and benefiting from the blue clay’s natural insulation, the structure is symbiotic with the hills and vineyard that surround it. The architects called their underground design concept The Quarry. “To represent the effort required to produce the wine made here, we created a series of spaces – not by construction, but by extraction from the hill’s monolithic mass. The diverse internal volumes, heights and levels are reminiscent of a gold mine as it follows seams of precious metal to the core,” said Japanese-born architect Hikaru Mori.
Cast-in-place concrete was used for the winery’s architectural framework. Inside, clean lines of glass and steel predominate, balanced by rows of oak barrels. Textured and scored surfaces throughout are a reminder of the extractive construction process, while openings in the walls frame vertical profiles of the vineyard’s inimitable blue clay terroir.
At the very heart of the structure lies the Estate’s wine library, Masseto Caveau. Bottles of every vintage since 1986 are preserved here, in perfect cellaring conditions, each suspended in its own stainless-steel mesh cradle. There could be no better physical manifestation of the Estate’s history.
The 2018 vintage is the first to be vinified in the Winery, by recently appointed cellar master Eleonora Marconi.
About Masseto
Masseto, located on the Tuscan coast close to the small village of Bolgheri, is a unique place producing a unique wine. The Masseto hill, which looks out towards the Tyrrhenian Sea, can be divided into three main sections due to its different subsoils, which combined, give the wine its unforgettable character. An intriguing combination of structure and opulence, matched with elegance and softness, Masseto owes its distinct personality to the blue clay of the Pliocene Era which dominates the soils of this small Estate. Masseto, controlled by the Frescobaldi family, has received international acclaim since its birth in 1986. For more information, visit www.masseto.com.
