Summary
Masi Agricola from Gargagnago in Valpolicella Classica is one of the best-known names in Italian red wine – and is inseparably linked with Amarone. For six to seven generations the Boscaini family has run the house, whose name goes back to the historic „Vaio dei Masi“ site. What has made Masi influential far beyond the region is its systematic work on the appassimento method: the weeks-long drying of the grapes that gives the wines concentration, richness of extract and the typical bitter-almond note. With Campofiorin (1964) and the single-vineyard Amarone wines Costasera, Mazzano and Campolongo di Torbe, Masi also established wine styles that shape the whole zone today.
History
The history of the Boscaini family in Gargagnago begins towards the end of the 18th century. Around 1772 the family acquired a first parcel in the small valley called „Vaio dei Masi“ – the field name later became the brand name. For generations the business remained a classic Valpolicella winery, until in the 20th century it gradually became one of the driving forces of the region.
The decisive impulse came from Sandro Boscaini, who took over from his father in 1978 and earned the nickname „Mr Amarone“ in the wine world. Even before that, the house had set two courses that still resonate today: in 1964 Campofiorin came onto the market – a Valpolicella fermented a second time on the skins of partly dried grapes, and thus regarded as the forerunner of today's Ripasso wines. And as early as the late 1950s Masi bottled Campolongo di Torbe, an Amarone from a single, named vineyard, which was unusual in Italy at the time.
In 1973 began the collaboration with the Conti Serègo Alighieri, descendants of the poet Dante Alighieri, whose estate in Gargagnago dates back to the 14th century – a partnership that continues to this day. Later, further estates and holdings were added in the Veneto, Trentino, Friuli, Lombardy and Argentina. Since 2015 Masi Agricola S.p.A. has been listed on the Milan stock exchange, with the Boscaini family retaining control.
Location & Terroir
Gargagnago lies in Valpolicella Classica, the historic core zone north of Verona between Lake Garda and the Lessinia mountains. The landscape consists of a series of small valleys („vaio“) whose slopes open to the south and south-west. The best parcels lie on hillsides at roughly 250 to 450 metres above sea level.
The soils are predominantly calcareous, in many places with a volcanic component and clayey weathering layers of Eocene marl. This combination yields wines with structure and fine acidity – the prerequisite for a wine as concentrated as Amarone not to seem clumsy. Lake Garda to the west moderates temperatures, while cool night air from the mountains preserves the aromas. For the appassimento, the ventilation of the drying lofts is also decisive: there the grapes lose a large part of their water over some 100 to 120 days before they are pressed.
Style & Philosophy
At the core of the Masi philosophy is the conviction that appassimento is not a relic but a discipline of oenology in its own right. For this there has been, since the 1980s, the Masi Technical Group, an in-house research team of agronomists and oenologists studying drying curves, grape selection, yeasts and ageing. From this work come, among other things, proprietary yeast strains that considerably shorten what used to be a months-long fermentation, making possible fresher, less oxidative Amarone.
Stylistically, Masi seeks the balance between power and drinkability: dense, dark fruit, notes of raisin and cherry, spice and the bitter almond typical of the zone on the finish – but carried by acidity rather than by sweetness alone. A second thread is the work with indigenous varieties. Alongside Corvina, Rondinella and Molinara, Masi in particular brought the almost extinct Oseleta back into the vineyards; it supplies colour, tannin and spice and is today permitted as a blending variety in the Valpolicella denominations.
Notable Sites & Wines
- Costasera Amarone della Valpolicella Classico DOCG – the estate's best-known Amarone, from slopes facing south-west towards Lake Garda
- Mazzano – a single vineyard in the municipality of Negrar at around 400 metres, cool and wind-exposed; a particularly taut, mineral Amarone in small quantities
- Campolongo di Torbe – a single vineyard on limestone and weathered volcanic soils, rounder and more velvety than Mazzano
- Campofiorin – Rosso Veronese IGT, the classic introduced in 1964 and the model for the Ripasso category
- Serègo Alighieri – a separate line from the historic estate of Dante's descendants, including Amarone and the Recioto „Casal dei Ronchi“
- Recioto della Valpolicella Classico DOCG – the sweet traditional wine of the zone, from the same partly dried grapes
Awards
Masi has for decades been among Italy's consistently highly rated addresses. The Costasera Amarone regularly achieves scores in the region of 90 to 94 points in international tastings; an Amarone from the Serègo Alighieri line was placed very high in Wine Spectator's „Top 100“ list in 2015, and the house has been named a „Critics' Choice Winery“ by the same magazine. In the Italian guides (Gambero Rosso, Bibenda, Veronelli) the top wines are a permanent presence, too.
Beyond wine, the house is culturally active: out of reflections by Sandro Boscaini and friends came the Premio Masi in 1981, an award for personalities with Venetian roots, which since 2001 has been presented by the purpose-founded Fondazione Masi – an unusual example of how closely a wine estate can be tied to the identity of its region.