FABRIZIO NICCOLAINI

MASSA VECCHIA

 

The now legendary Tuscan natural wine farm Massa Vecchia was founded in 1985, long before natural wines were a trend of any sort and actually before the term was even first invented. But definitions and categories don’t really apply to the dream that Fabrizio Niccolaini and his wife Patrizia built, with their daughter Francesca and a number of partners now holding the reins, a dream that sees the love for their land and terroir as the solid foundations of a truly holistic organism, where man, nature and the vine exist in imperfect (as perfection is for non-living things) and dynamic harmony. Massa Vecchia is located in Northern Tuscany’s Maremma area, just at the feet of the Metallifere hills and is now comprised of about 6 hectares planted with vines, some extremely old and venerable, of Sangiovese, Alicante, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon for the reds and Vermentino, Trebbiano and Malvasia di Candia for the whites. The approach in the vineyards is as loving as is uncompromising, going well beyond organic or biodynamic farming. In the cellar there are only spontaneous fermentation with native yeasts, all in open wooden vats, with long macerations both for their incredibly deep and complex reds and the supremely vibrant and age-worthy orange wines. These are wines that are pure and luminous concentrates of terroir, passion and art.