Professional reviews
James Suckling (95)
James Suckling: An opulent nose that shows plum cake, blueberry muffins, dark chocolate, mocha, coffee, plum liqueur and hot stones. However, there just the right amount of freshness with thyme, violets and cedar. Full body, very chewy tannins and a long, decadent finish. Very intense, but it still shows form and tension.
BOW (9.50)
Robert Parker (97)
The 2015 Messorio is a true tribute to Merlot. It's not easy to faithfully render the distinctive characteristics of this grape, within such a tight margin of error, but the winemaking team at Le Macchiole has deftly achieved exactly that. With sourcing from the Puntone vineyard, Le Macchiole wanted to achieve less density yet more aromas of skin. The wine has a homogeneous feel, with huge generosity and fullness, and it delivers big, ripe cherry tones with so much luscious fruit and delineated persistence.
Jancis Robinson (17.50)
Why not labelled as Bolgheri? 'Because not all parcels we harvested the grapes from for this wine have the DOC Bolgheri.' But isn’t that like saying under the DOC Bolgheri you cannot make great wine? 'Yes, perhaps but the albo (the official vineyard cadastre) of the DOC is closed, so we cannot label it as Bolgheri.' 100% Merlot from the Bolgheri plain and from two different plots with 20% and 25% clay, respectively, while the first has large river stones also mixed in with the clay. One-third was fermented in concrete and two-thirds in stainless steel. Aged for 18 months in large oak cask and barrique. They bought a tronconic oak cask but the fermentation in this container turned out less interesting than expected, hence it is only used for ageing. First vintage was 1994. The example was Masseto? 'Yes, I know, a little banal.' 10,000 bottles produced.
Deep, youthful ruby. Perfumed and deep oak and fruit nose. It is certainly captivating, but leaves me a little cold. Very long, deep and tannic with minerality on the finish.
Falstaff (97)
Sparkling, intense ruby with a violet shimmer. Opens with pronounced spicy notes of celery and cardamom, followed by plenty of blueberry. It blossoms beautifully on the palate, compact and dense, with a wonderfully sweet texture and dense tannins, and a very long finish.
