Vajo dei Masi, the value of time

On the occasion of the Boscaini family’s 250th vintage in 2022, there was no shortage of celebration. And they would be missed! But such a special occasion could only give rise to an extraordinary idea that for the occasion became wine and took the name of Vajo dei Masi.

Vajo dei Masi is an Amarone della Valpolicella Classico, And so far so normal. Except that it was first released in 2022 in the 1997 vintage. Today, 2025, the 1999 And now I will explain why it is so extraordinary.

First of all, it should be said that Vajo dei Masi is not an old Amarone, it is just an old vintage. In fact, part of the project is to go and get the best grapes for appassimento and Amarone production there where it all began, in the high hills and slopes. Vajo can be traced back to the first plot the Boscaini family cultivated in the classic zone. A place that the main grapes of Valpolicella have elected as their home since time immemorial. Sloping, sun-kissed and cradled by the wind vine plants give, in the right proportion, clusters suitable for withering. Healthy, homogeneous, sparse. A practice, withering, that still manages to be conducted as it once was, thanks to the altitude and cool climate of the high hills, without forcing or conditioning while respecting the inherent slowness of the process.

The time capsule

From this locus amoenus, thanks to the vocation of the raw material, comes a wine destined to remain crystallized in time. All regular at the production level: vinification in steel, racking, maturation in wood, and then, intuition. Back in steel, the wine rests in a nitrogen-protected atmosphere for 20 years as if in a time capsule. It is not that everything stops there exactly, but everything enters a dimension of slowness by reshuffling priorities and values. The value of time, first of all, the true protagonist of Amarone classico Vajo dei Masi. Time, however, that does not evoke the past but becomes contemporary at the moment of tasting. Because this wine, I repeat, is not old at all, it is just the child of an old vintage.

Vajo dei Masi is proof that the land needs man as much as man needs the land. In respecting each other, amazing things can only come about. Historical memory of Valpolicella, Vajo is a dive into the past that speaks loudly about the present and future of the appellation by carrying it forward in the most sincere way possible: by enhancing its vocation and talent.

Amarone for Masi is a word with a deep and multifaceted meaning. So much so that, over the years, it has created one for every occasion, manifesting how this wine should and can be suitable for every occasion, in a way even everyday. Because if Vajo dei Masi, produced in a limited edition and only in the most suitable vintages, represents a daring provocation reserved for great occasions (accessibility in price not exactly within everyone’s reach), the frontiers of Amarone for Masi do not end there. And in a moment therefore they manifest themselves in the recognizability of the “Costasera style,” and Costasera Riserva, but also in the austerity of Mazzano, the longevity of Campo Longo, and the depth of Mezzanella.

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