We are in Massa Marittima, in the province of Grosseto, about twenty kilometers from the Tyrrhenian Sea, in the upper Maremma Toscana, in an area characterized by metalliferous hills; here, in 1985, Fabrizio Niccolaini and his wife Patrizia Bartolini founded the farm Massa Vecchia. While remaining in the family, the management of the company passed, from 2009 to 2018, into the hands of Patrizia’s daughter, Francesca Sfrondini, who manages it in partnership with Daniel and Ines Wattenhofer, Thomas Frischknecht and Rocco Delli Colli. After the great work done, in 2019, Francesca hands the company back into the hands of the founder, Fabrizio, who now manages it with the help of Francesca’s brothers: Tosca and Vasco.
Despite the leading succession, Massa Vecchia has always been conceived as a farm, with a production that has as its protagonist the wine, alongside the production of extra virgin olive oil and seeds. This diversified production offer, combined with the fact that 11 of the 24 hectares of property are simply made up of woodland, suggests that the company has an overall and holistic view of its production processes. As for the strictly wine production, the winery can count on about six hectares divided into five plots, at an altitude between 180 and 220 meters, with a density ranging from 2200 to 5000 vines per hectare, managed following a natural regime. In all five plots the work is carried out manually, the chemical treatments have been entirely replaced by those based on sulfur and Bordeaux mixture, and by fertilization with legume or cattle manure.
Among the approximately 15,000 wines produced, one fifth is represented by Ariento, a 100% Vermentino that is manually harvested with a first, careful, selection in the plant. Its vinification begins with the spontaneous alcoholic fermentation, by means of indigenous yeasts, and maceration on the skins for 2-3 weeks, in open truncated-conic vats. The aging lasts 18 months in oak barrels and another 6 in bottle, without any addition of sulfur in any of the described phases.
The 2018 vintage has an intense golden color, slightly opalescent, with an olfactory range that opens on notes of dried apricot, macerated plum, dried pineapple and hay, followed by candied cedar, dried hawthorn, chamomile and strawberry tree honey, with final echoes of beeswax, carpentry and cinnamon. The palate impresses with the great freshness and dynamism of the sip, combined with the sensation of drinking a wine without filters, with an oxidation so light to make it simply tasty; all enriched by the return of dehydrated fruit and spices that accompany the sip until a refreshing and greedy closure.
Rating: 89/100
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