The quality and character of individual vineyards is a fashionable factor in the world of fine wine but it has been central to the identity of Masi’s wines since the estate was founded in 1772. After all, Masi takes its name from the Vaio di Masi vineyard in Valpolicella Classico, a site that celebrated its 250th harvest in 2022.
Under the stewardship of the Boscaini family, now into its seventh generation, two particular Masi vineyards have exerted great influence on the quality of the producer’s Amarone della Valpolicella. Renowned since the 12th century, the Campolongo di Torbe vineyard is one of them.
Characterised by fertile volcanic soils, south-west exposition and altitude of around 400 metres, Campolongo di Torbe is an ideal site for the slow and gentle ripening of grapes. It was under the fifth generation of the Boscaini family that the idea to celebrate the extraordinary qualities of specific vineyards came to fruition.
‘At the end of the 1950s, […] my grandfather Guido Boscaini had the idea to transfer the terroir into the bottle,’ seventh-generation Giacomo Boscaini explains. ‘He experimented with many single vineyards but in the end decided that the first wine he released would be from this exceptional site.’
The decision was revolutionary, earning Masi a place in the history books in 1958 as the first winery in Italy to bottle a cru wine from a named single vineyard. Wines produced from grapes grown in Campolongo di Torbe are notable for their elegance and rich, velvety texture, with flavours tending to ripe cherries, chocolate and a delicate spiciness.
Masi’s innovations in both appassimento and single-vineyard cuvées are indicative of the producer’s long-held appreciation for the most exciting individual sites
Mazzano is the second of the two revered sites. Masi produced its first single-vineyard wine from Mazzano six years later, in 1964. Its calcareous soils and notably cooler climate make for a longer growing season than in Campolongo di Torbe, yielding wines of distinctive power, austere in youth but magnificent with bottle ageing.
Wines from Mazzano are known for intensity, deep colour and complex flavour profile, typically exhibiting notes of liqueur and coffee with a profound tannic structure that puts the wine on a path to long life. As with Campolongo di Torbe, wines from the Mazzano vineyard have proved themselves capable of maturing and improving for more than four decades before reaching their peak.
The exceptional flavour profiles of Masi’s cru wines owe much to appassimento, the process of drying the grapes before fermentation. Bunches are harvested in late September or early October and left to dry on bamboo racks in naturally ventilated buildings called fruttaio. By the middle of February, the bunches have lost 35-40% of their original weight, concentrating the flavours and sugars in the grapes. The grapes are then destemmed, pressed and fermented over 45 days with proprietary yeasts until fermentation stops. Finally, the wines age for three years in oak barrels and an additional six months in bottle before release.
Appassimento is key to expressing the natural differences between the terroirs. ‘In Mazzano, the fruttaio for drying the grapes is very exposed to the wind,’ Boscaini says. ‘Unlike Campo’ di Torbe, where some botrytis contributes texture and richness, in Mazzano the windy conditions create a different style of wine, enhanced by the natural appassimento process.’
In the 1980s, under the guidance of the company’s technical group, Masi carried out extensive research into appassimento techniques. ‘It is a complex technique with many variables but it is crucial to unlock the expression of terroir,’ Boscaini says. ‘Noble rot develops during the drying process, moreso in Campolongo di Torbe than in Mazzano. With a slow and cold appassimento, there are important changes to the structure of the grape, which are fundamental to the development of texture and flavour, particularly the signature aftertaste of bitter almonds in our Amarone.’
An early pioneer of the traditional Veneto grape varieties, Masi has also been behind important research into indigenous grapes, including Corvina, Molinara and Rondinella, as well as rarer historical specialities such as Oseleta. The latter is bottled as a cru wine alongside Campolongo di Torbe and Mazzano in Masi’s Cantina Privata Boscaini range.
The clamour for terroir-driven wines that express a sense of place may feel like a relatively recent trend but Masi’s innovations in both appassimento and single-vineyard cuvées are indicative of the producer’s long-held appreciation for the most exciting individual sites. More than 60 years after they were first created, Masi’s cru wines from Campolongo di Torbe and Mazzano showcase the pleasure to be found in the singular quality of – and distinct differences between – the world’s finest vineyards.
