Vineyards Magazine

The history of Tenuta La Massa can be summed up in one name, Giampaolo Motta. With his twin passions viticulture and winemaking formed in France then definitively rooted in Italy, he was on an adventuresome search of a dream terroir. Not a family patrimony, then, but a terra electa decided upon with love, a true lieu-dit. That finally came to fruition in 1992, when Motta, Neapolitan by birth but Tuscan by adoption, found La Massa. That encounter cemented an indissoluble bond between man and terroir.

Lying in the magnificent Conca d’Oro of Panzano, in the heart of Chianti Classico, the wine estate extends over 25 hectares of southwest-facing vineyards. In the 1990s, Motta launched an impressive, lengthy vineyard reclamation project, followed by an in-depth zonation study, and then construction of a wine cellar. All these tesserae were designed to give definitive shape to his dream, to make La Massa a compact paradise, whose quintessence would be shared with the world through its wines: Giorgio Primo, Asiram, Carla 6, and La Massa.

The viticultural and oenological pathways La Massa adopted “break” with traditional Tuscan practices, inasmuch as the sapient hand of the winemaker shapes what Nature gifts each year and ensures that the wines convey the interpretive force of the estate soils, which are the true genius loci.

La Massa, the first wine produced, is a symbol of the estate’s growth and research. It is a fitting representative of the emphatic character of a rugged area like Panzano, but at the same time it displays the elegant oenological personality of its creator-winemaker. Here Sangiovese dialogues with Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Giorgio Primo, in memory of his grandfather, is the Grand Vin, the essence of the estate. It is a cuvée of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Petit Verdot that synthesises the estate as well as its uninterrupted, near- obsessive striving for perfection, both in the vineyards and in the winecellar.

From La Massa’s viticultural heritage comes the collection of the crus: Carla6 and Asiram. Carla 6: dedicated to the daughter Carla and to plot number 6, 100% Sangiovese, it is a tribute to a grape variety that embodies the Tuscan land. Asiram: an expression of Merlot, which will debut in 2023. Dedicated to Giampaolo’s mother, Marisa, it derives from vineyard number 4, where this grape variety gives its unique and singular result.

Soils and their crucial role, fulcrum of growth and creation of wines

“After 15 years spent in walking my vineyards, only now do I feel that I am at the beginning of an enormously long process of understanding. Knowing the relationship of each separate soil complex to the local climate and weather is the absolute foundation of putting together a faithful interpretation of a great terroir. In order for any great terroir to fully express itself, one must possess a deep humility and have the willingness to do everything possible/ give one’s utmost to influence as little as possible what nature must bring to completion. That is a marvellous challenge that repeats itself afresh each year. We must never forget that we are “fruit producers”, and that without great grapes there can never be a great
wine.”
— Giampaolo Motta

Wines: A touch of Bordeaux in Chianti Classico

“I wanted to make a wine that would be the expression of my passion for the land, which I first experienced in France, a passion free from pre-conditioned directions and formulas. This wine would be an offspring of a land that welcomes its children and shapes them. I achieved just that, working together with a smoothly-functioning team that believes in our common project, namely, wines that are international in spirit while speaking the language of their Tuscan land.”
— Giampaolo Motta

La Massa is the estate’s eponymous and initial wine a cuvée of 50% Sangiovese and 50% Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Alicante Bouschet and Petit Verdot. Born rebellious but classic in essence, La Massa was the first wine produced in 1992. Today, the 2020 vintage is on the market, while the 2021 vintage will debut in a few weeks.  In these days, “La Massa” 2019 was awarded the first place in the “Best Tuscan Wines 2024” ranking for value for money from Wine-Searcher, the international platform comparing ratings and prices of wines worldwide.  Giorgio Primo is the quintessence, the matchless summation of the study and consequent understanding of this unique locus. Here, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon seamlessly complement each other, in a multi-layered, refined symphonic score expressed in aromas. These two wines and their vineyards gave birth, in turn, to two soloists, a collection of cultivars: Carla 6, a Sangiovese 100% that pays eloquent, and dignified homage to the
grape that embodies the Tuscan terroir and Asiram, a monovarietal Merlot from a vineyard whose interpretation of that variety is so one-of-a-kind that its wine is perforce equally unique.