Le Macchiole Messorio 2012

Professional Ratings

• 97 Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
  The 2012 Messorio is a drop dead gorgeous wine. Warm summer temperatures have done their part to shape a soft and supple wine that feels like silk sheets against the palate. The bouquet is redolent of red fruit, bold cherry, leather, spice, tar, licorice and grilled herb. The youth of the wine allows you the perspective of contemplating each one of those aromas individually. They will, of course, reach greater harmony and integration as the wine continues its long evolution. This wine reflects beautifully on the magnificence of Merlot in Coastal Tuscany.
• 96 James Suckling
  This is really fantastic with aromas of black olives, flowers and sandalwood. There's a clarity and precision to the wine. Full body, ultra-fine tannins and a chewy and structured finish. A muscular merlot with tone and tension. Better in 2017.
• 95 Wine Spectator
  Ripe and expressive, featuring sweet cherry, plum, currant, leather and earth flavors married to mouthcoating tannins. Lush and fresh, yet firm and chewy on the long, compact finish. Very complex and powerful. Merlot. Best from 2017 through 2023.
• 94 Wine & Spirits
  Cinzia Merli and her team harvest merlot for Messorio from the estate’s Puntone and Vignone vineyards, restricting yields to less than two pounds per plant. The wine fermented 25 days in a mix of stainless steel and large oak casks, and aged 20 months in barriques, about three-quarters of them new. Scents of violet lead into flavors of blackberry and cassis accented by notes of sweet spice and vanilla, the texture seamless. The fruit is impressively vibrant given the warm growing season, and the wine develops richness with time in the glass, adding notes of pine nuts, tobacco and dried leaves. This will be even more expressive after two or three years in the cellar, when it will be an elegant partner for dry-aged New York strip.