Intense aromas of ripe herbs, plums, green coffee beans, and hazelnuts. Turns to crushed berries and orange peel. Full-bodied with superb concentration and fine, velvety tannins that run the length of the wine. It's big but agile and gorgeous. Merlot. What a wine! Best after 2030.

The 2020 Masseto now sees new DNA with a touch of Cabernet Franc added to this celebrated Merlot-based icon wine. This is a vintage of enormous richness and density, and everything about the wine is taken up a notch or two (including the bottle glass weight and the 15% alcohol content). But Axel Heinz and his team are well prepared for the hot vintages like 2020, and changes to farming and canopy management ensure even ripening. This wine is always hard to analyze in its youth. It needs many more years to soften and flesh out. Give it time.