The Renzo Masi winery is located in the heart of the Rufina region of Chianti, in Tuscany. The Masi family acquired the farm, Fattoria di Basciano, back in 1925. The land is blessed with a 1000 foot, hilltop elevation, classic Tuscan stony soil and a dry, breezy microclimate. This all adds up to perfect winemaking conditions.
You can spend a lot on a Rufina Chianti Classico Reserva, and be rewarded by some pretty amazing wines. You won’t spend that much with the Chianti reviewed here, however, as Renzo Masi is all about value, a concept near and dear to our hearts.
The farm does not produce enough to to fill all of the winemaking requirements, so they work with neighbors to 
supplement the fruit supply. Many of these neighboring vineyards have worked with them for more than 15-20 years, and a long term relationship is the norm. Paolo Masi, grandson of the founding father of the Fattoria, oversees the operation and the winemaking. Paolo is all about what is best, and will not hesitate to change, or rip up a vineyard for replanting, if that is what is called for. He is all about producing quality, value driven wines.
The winery produces two lines of wine. The Renzo M. line produces wine from purchased grapes. This is absolutely not a negative statement, as the value here can be insane. Both wines in this review are from this line. Also from this wine are the El Bastardo and Il Bastarda wines we reviewed a few months ago. You can read about those crazy values by clicking here.
The second line of the house is the Fattoria di Basciano, and comes exclusively from estate grapes. Here you will find the DOCG Rufina Chianti and Chianti Riserva. They also make a Super Tuscan blend of Sangiovese and Cabernet Sauvignon, as well as Bordeaux style blend. These we have not tried yet, but are certainly looking forward to doing so.
Here are the wines for review:
2018 Renzo Masi Chianti DOCG – this has a rich, ruby red color. There is 5% Colorino in the blend, along with the
traditional Sangiovese. The nose is full of cherry aromas, along with some mint, other herbal notes, oak and a bit of orange peel. The wine is medium bodied, with firm tannins. The cherry flavors persist through the long finish. This has good acid, is quite fresh, and will pair perfectly with your pizza or pasta. You can, of course,simply drink it. We did! At $12 this is an outstanding value.
2017 Renzo Masi Erta e China IGT Toscana – this is a blend of 50% Sangiovese and 50% Cabernat Sauvignon. As such it is not within the limits for a DOCG classification, and it gets the lower, very often deceiving, IGT label. The great Super-Tuscans of the Maremma all carry this designation, and you can spend many hundreds of dollars on a bottle with a basic geographical indication. Think about wines like Tignanello, Sassicaia and Ornellaia.
This wine is not in the same quality category as those giants, but then again, this is only $16.
The Erta e China is a dark, ruby red. The nose is full of cherry and other red fruits, along with toasty oak, clay and herbal notes. On the palate, we got red berries and cherry flavors. This is a very pleasing wine, well made and another excellent value.
When you open a bottle of wine from Renzo Masi you should expect extreme value. That has been our unfailing experience to date. It will be interesting to see how their estate wines live up to that standard, but we are expecting nothing but continued excellence.
This is certainly a producer who goes on the list of sure things. You can’t really go wrong with one of their wines.
A votre santé!
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