Masseto, symbol of fine Italian wines, is the “Winery of the Decade” for James Suckling

It’s exactly ten years since James Suckling, one of the world’s most influential wine critics, left Wine Spectator to set up his website (www.jamessuckling.com) and his projects. An anniversary that, after 100.000 wines tasted and dozens of events around the world, Suckling wanted to celebrate with three awards, to the wine, to the winemaker and to the “Winery of the Decade”, Masseto, of the Frescobaldi family, the only brand in Tuscany - according to the Californian critic - able to rise to the level of the great Château of Bordeaux and the great producers of Burgundy, conquering, at an important price ($ 800 per bottle on the U.S. market, ed), the top of the market, including the Place de Bordeaux. Here, under the Bolgheri sun, in April 2019, was born the Masseto winery, until then produced in “home” Ornellaia, making a great wine also a great and futuristic estate, signed by ZitoMori studio. And it is no coincidence that there are as many as three 100 cent vintages of this Merlot in purity - 2001, 2011 and 2016- born almost by chance, thanks to the intuition and the help of André Tchelistcheff, the oenologist who revolutionized the wine of California. The “Wine of the Decade”, on the other hand, is the Almaviva Puente Alto 2017, for its undoubted influence in building the reputation of Chilean wines around the world, while Philippe Dhalluin, Baron Philippe de Rothschild’s managing director, who has signed prestigious wines such as Mouton Rothschild, Opus, and Almaviva, has been named “Winemaker of the Decade”.