Tenuta La Massa is proud to announce the release to the markets of its latest creation, Asiram. The 100% Merlot constitutes the most eloquent and complete expression of its terroir in the Conca d’Oro of Panzano in Chianti and was conceived by Tenuta founder Giampaolo Motta as a tribute to his mother Marisa and to the Merlot grape. That homage is embodied today in the 2019 vintage of Asiram, in a product of great value, inasmuch as it is the culmination of lengthy soils research and study in this extraordinary locus, efforts that are guided by passion and commitment and have led to the crafting of a wine that is at once the authentic synthesis of a terroir and an inspiring testimony to the vision of Giampaolo Motta.
The Conca d’Oro’s unique climate and very distinctive soils offer Merlot its ideal growing habitat, allowing the development of incredibly intense aromas and sensory complexity, qualities that can be found in every bottle. Asiram is not merely a wine, but the true expression of an intimate bond with the earth, deeply-rooted in winemaking traditions yet an innovative thrust into the future as well.
Miss Marisa, whose name—read from right to left–is borne today by this Merlot, played a crucial role in the birth of Tenuta La Massa, and so, in 2019, shortly after her passing, “while strolling in the vineyard, the idea came to me of celebrating her memory through a wine,” recalls Giampaolo. Asiram, however, is a tribute not “only” to his mother, but to his love for Merlot as well, a variety he studied in depth, right from his first years in France. The 2019 vintage, in particular, is impressively balanced and elegant, yet forceful, with concentrated polyphenols and a tangy, richly-flavoured finish.
The Merlot for Asiram, planted in 1999, grows in vineyard parcel no. 4, 5,000 square metres of distinctive blue and olive-hued clay, very deep and rich in calcareous schist. “The Merlot of parcel no. 4 has always intrigued me with its uniqueness, with its ability to meld together the characteristics of Merlot grown in clay and of the one grown in limestone. That is why, right from the beginning, we vinified it separately, just as if the vineyard itself indicated the path we should take.”
For Giampaolo Motta, making a wine is interpreting a place and giving it its own voice. “Yes, my voice, as its creator, but the voices as well of important persons in my life, like Giorgio I, dedicated to my grandfather and to my son, and Carla 6 to my daughter. In naming this wine for my mother, I see her personality and forcefulness, but also of our mother par excellence: Mother Nature.” Asiram has become the most genuine reflection of the impressive quality the soils in the Conca d’Oro of Panzano in Chianti. It is produced in limited editions: in the case of 2019, only 1,800 bottles were made, released to the markets in November/December 2024.
Winery
In 1992, Giampaolo Motta, Neapolitan by birth but Tuscan by adoption, encountered La Massa, and that moment formed an indissoluble bond between the man and his terroir. The estate, lying in the magnificent Conca d’Oro of Panzano, in the heart of Chianti Classico, boasts 25 hectares of southwest-facing vineyards. In the 1990s, he initiated a lengthy vineyards restoration project and in-depth zonation research, in an effort to give shape to his dream through his wines: Giorgio Primo, Carla 6, and La Massa. The viticultural and oenological pathways La Massa adopted “break” with traditional Tuscan practices, and the sapient hand of the winemaker ensures that the wines convey the interpretive force of the estate soils. La Massa, the first wine produced, is representative of the emphatic character of a rugged area like Panzano, but at the same time it displays the elegant oenological personality of its creator-winemaker, with Sangiovese carrying out an elegant dialogue with Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Next is Carla 6, dedicated to daughter Carla and made with grapes from vineyard parcel 6; a monovarietal Sangiovese, it pays tribute to the grape that embodies Tuscany. Giorgio Primo, named for Motta’s grandfather, is a cuvée of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Petit Verdot that synthesises the estate as well as its uninterrupted, near-obsessive striving for perfection, both in the vineyards and in the winecellar.