estate, was chosen for Masseto. Marconi has since left, and in 2021 was replaced as winemaker and cellar master by Gaia Cinnirella, previously a vineyard manager at Biondi-Santi.
Forging a lofty reputation The dizzying leadership changes have been matched by even more tumultuous changes of ownership. In November 1999, Lodovico Antinori sold Robert Mondavi a 50 percent share in Ornellaia, with an option to buy it all. Mondavi purchased the rest of Ornellaia in 2001, for a rumored $35 million. When the news came a few months later that Mondavi had sold 50 percent of Ornellaia to the Frescobaldi family, who, as the other oldest and most aristocratic wine dynasty of Florence, are ancient rivals of the Antinori, Lodovico Antinori felt personally betrayed. Behind the scenes, a constant presence throughout this whole story, is Giovanni Geddes da Filicaja, CEO of Ornellaia. Tall and lean, debonair and aristocratic in his impeccable tailoring, Geddes da Filicaja runs the business. Geddes da Filicaja was CEO of
Antinori for 12 years. He became involved with Ornellaia when Lodovico Antinori hired him as a consultant to help with the structuring of the company. In 1997, Geddes da Filicaja became CEO of Frescobaldi, but in 1999 was invited back to be CEO of Ornellaia. Geddes da Filicaja negotiated the sale of the Ornellaia estate, first to Mondavi and then to Frescobaldi, Geddes da Filicaja remaining CEO with a 5 percent share. After Constellation acquired Mondavi for a reputed $1 billion in 2004, Frescobaldi was able to buy Mondavi’s other 50 percent share of Ornellaia. Lodovico Antinori thought he was selling to a foreign company, but Frescobaldi became the outright owners of Ornellaia and Masseto, a matter of lasting regret for Lodovico Antinori. Ever since Masseto became part of
the Frescobaldi portfolio, it has been the only wine among Italy’s very highest- level wines that is not associated with its creator. This is quite unusual for such an elite wine, especially such a modern one, not only in Italy, but anywhere. Now that Masseto has achieved its own identity
distinct from Ornellaia, it is, more than ever, a wine without a human face (not to mention a winery dog). Lodovico Antinori has been rather written out of the story, which is not surprising. What does seem a little strange, however, is that no one from the Frescobaldi family has taken on the public-facing role of owner. The Frescobaldi stay discreetly in the background, represented by Giovanni Geddes da Filicaja as CEO. Axel Heinz has been in charge of the winemaking at Masseto (and Ornellaia) for almost two decades now, and he therefore deserves full credit for cementing its lofty reputation. Heinz is an exceptional personality: knowledgeable, a fluent and entertaining speaker in at least four languages, sensitive, committed, and passionate about what he does, but he is not the owner, and sees himself as custodian. Masseto, he says, is not his wine. Heinz sees his job as being much like the director of an august Bordeaux château that has already passed through the hands of many owners. It could be a deliberate choice at the corporate level for Masseto not to be too intertwined with Heinz, creating an eventual successorship dilemma. For whatever reason, no other wine at the level of Masseto seems so much like an orphan. The history of Masseto is certainly interesting, but even so, notwithstanding all the intriguing characters and the cloak-and-dagger twists and turns of the plot, it is not the most important thing.
Above: Axel Heinz at the historic heart of Masseto's Merlot vineyard, rich in very rare blue clay soils. Opposite: The Caveau hidden deep inside the winery, where every bottle rests in its own steel cradle.
If you ever have the good fortune to visit Masseto, as I did recently for the first time, and be given a private tour of the vineyard and the winery, and then be invited for a tasting, after which you are ushered into the private dining room upstairs and served the legendary Masseto 2001 from double magnum… if you have that in your glass, as you dreamily look out over the beauteous Tuscan landscape, illuminated by the blazing orange-red streaks of the sunset, then you are only going to be thinking one thing, which is that you have arrived in Paradise.
The Masseto Caveau Release The online auction led by Amayès Aouli, Sotheby’s Head of Wine, Europe will run from April 12 to 27. It will comprise 35 cases, with bottles of the 2006, 2010, and 2011, as well as magnums, double magnums, imperials, and a single Nebuchadnezzar of those and older vintages back to 1996. The 46 lots—132 bottles in total—will carry a combined estimate in the region of €200,000. Masseto will also extend an invitation to the winning bidders to host them at the winery by the end of 2024. All the lots of and from Masseto Caveau are in oak cases handcrafted and numbered by an artisan in Bolgheri, and contain a certificate of origin signed by Axel Heinz. Every bottle will come with a Prooftag®, attesting to the wine’s authenticity, and the date when the bottle left the Caveau is stated on the front label: April 2023. Caveau is mentioned on every capsule as well as on the seals of guarantee that close the wooden cases.
THE WORLD OF FINE WINE | ISSUE 79 | 2023 | 69
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