2012 Le Macchiole Messorio Rosso IGT

First produced in 1994, Messorio started as a personal challenge with one of the most planted varieties not only in Bolgheri, but across the Tuscan coast and throughout the world: Merlot. From the start, the idea was to take the best bunches and transform them into an impactful wine with a big personality, staying as far away as possible from the more soft, predictable style that is often associated with Merlot and instead making a thoroughbred eager to win the race. The name "Messorio" refers to the wheat harvest, one of the most fundamental parts of the agricultural cycle.

Harvest 2012 has certainly been, for Le Macchiole, one of the longest in the past few years (no less than 43 days!), due to the special and favorable weather conditions that gave grapes time to reach the optimum sugar and phenolic ripening level. In early summertime, the year did not look so promising; warm temperatures and lack of rainfall made us fear the worst. That is why all vineyard work was aimed at protecting the vine's vegetative cycle by working the soil's surface layer and carefully lightening the foliage (by removing the secondary shoots, not by topping the plants) to allow the vines to deal with the summer's heatwave. This proved to be a successful move: by the middle of the summer season, when the weather changed by bringing breezy winds and rainfall, the vegetative cycle recovered its strength and achieved excellent grape ripeness. Grape yield was below average for the early varieties, but the year's weather conditions allowed us to work at a less feverish pace and perform a more careful selection of the grapes and winemaking process and a more cautious choice of vinification strategies.