Masseto scores on Liv-ex

With Masseto 2010 up 90% on the Liv-ex exchange over the last 12 months, expectations are running high for the 2011.

Masseto’s 7 ha. vineyard in Bolgheri

According to Masseto’s CEO Giovanni Geddes da Filicaja, 2011 is the best vintage since 2001, and has already grown 29% on the exchange since its September 10^th debut. Masseto, a pure Merlot from a 7ha. vineyard in Bolgheri on the Tuscan coast, started out as the second wine of Ornellaia in 2009. Today, it routinely sells for more than its famous sibling.

Giovanni Geddes de la Filicaja – Group CEO of Masseto

Geddes de Filicaja told the drinks business, that the wine’s success stems from its tiny production of 2,500 – 2,700 cases a year which gives it the same rarity factor as Pétrus. “If you look at Liv-ex, all Bordeaux went up enormously in 2010 / 11 and then the prices dropped quite a lot,” he explained. “Masseto kept going up in price and demand, and the same thing happened to Pétrus.”

Masseto is sold direct in Italy, the US and Canada, with the rest traded on the Place de Bordeaux through nine négociants. Geddes da Filijaca is keen to defend the system that has been criticised for leaving producers with no control over where their wines are sold. “I think the Place has done, and will continue to do, a great job for the wines. We get all our sales from the négoces by country, and in most cases by single customer, so we know exactly where it goes.” He points out that selling direct to a restaurant in Italy, is no guarantee the wine won’t be traded on to Russia or China.

While about 15% of the wine is sold in Asia, he believes roughly half the bottles sold in the UK end up there. Masseto is only released when bottled and ready for despatch, and Geddes da Filijaca is unconvinced by efforts to sell Italian wine en primeur. “There was something in the late 1990s, but it was more of a promotional activity than anything else.”