Masseto keeps faith with Bordeaux

While Bordeaux négociants prepare for the 2014 campaign with bulging warehouses and uncertainty in the market, one Italian producer expresses his belief in the system.

Masseto’s 7 ha. vineyard in Bolgheri

Taking time out from Vinitaly, Giovanni Geddes da Filicaja, CEO of Frescobaldi and Tenuta dell’Ornellaia, spoke to db about Masseto, the iconic single vineyard Merlot from Bolgheri on the Tuscan coast, and his continued faith in the négociant system. Having tested the water with the 2006 vintage, Masseto’s 2,500 case production is now entirely traded on the Place de Bordeaux apart from an allocation reserved for the US, Canada and Italy.

“There have been big cracks in the system, as in the 1970s, and some are stronger than others. The nine négociants we use are among the strongest, and for them Masseto has become a very important brand in terms of value,” said Geddes da Filicaja. “I personally think that the wines that come out of en primeur will have a tough time to sell all their production year after year. I’ve seen that en primeur hasn’t worked very well for the last three or four years, but that’s happened before.”

Part of the reason for joining the Place was to give it its own identity and distribution. “Having two great wines with Ornellaia five times bigger in volume but 30 – 40% less in price, I felt that the attention would always be on Masseto being smaller and more expensive, and that would damage Ornellaia,” he explained. He also felt the wine’s original importers were: “using Masseto as leverage to sell other wines which was exactly what we didn’t want, because when you leverage something you dilute the image of the product.”

Controlling the degree of speculation in Masseto which risks creating a bubble, has never been easy. “I know many collectors in Italy that buy from restaurants one bottle at a time, and this summer there’s one such collection coming up for sale in Hong Kong,” said Geddes da Filicaja. As for other Italian wines embracing the Place de Bordeaux, he sounded sceptical: “How many have great international demand and a very high price? There are some in Barolo who have great demand for one vintage, but it drops completely the next vintage, so it’s very unstable.”