Exploring Bolgheri through the lens of one of its top estates: Ornellaia masterclass with Denise Cosentino
Website: https://www.ornellaia.com/en/
Denise is winemaker at Ornellaia, so it was great to have a chance to do a vertical of this famous Bolgheri wine.
Bolgheri is on the Tuscan coast, just below Livorno. There are 8200 hectares of vines in the region. Ornellaia is nestled into the mineral-rich hills with deep clay soils: closer to the coast the soils are sandy. The closer to the hills there are pebbly alluvial soils, the closer to the sea it is sandy, and in between there’s some clay.
This is a region with a recent history compared with the rest of Tuscany. There had been some vines from the 17th century, but phylloxera ended this. It wasn’t until 1942 that Mario Incisa de Inchetta who wanted to make some serious Bordeaux-like wines here. He planted the first Cabernet Sauvignon in 1944, further from the sea. 1972 saw the first release of Sassicaia 1968.
Ornellaia first planted vines in 1982, and the first vintage of Ornellaia. Lodovico Antinori was the man behind this. He wanted to make a Bordeaux blend. Meanwhile, the Mondavi family bought into the winery in the 1990s, and started a project, Luce, with Frescobaldi. When Constellation bought Mondavi, Frescobaldi bought Ornellaia. This was in 2005.
There are 121 hectares of red varieties here and 13 hectares of white. Reds are Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot, while whites are Sauvignon Blanc, Vermentino, Semillon and Viognier. Cabernet Sauvignon is the key variety.
There are four blocks. Bellaria, the biggest, has deep limestone. Ornellaia block is on clay soils of marine origin. Ferrugini and Bozze are younger blocks on sandy soils.
Rainfall is 600 mm which almost all falls in the winter and spring. It’s warm and sunny here during the growing season. The proximity to the sea means there’s a lot of wind.
Ornellaia Bianco 2022 Bolgheri, Italy
100% Sauvignon Blanc, pebbles on limestone and also deep pebbly clay. First made in 2013. Barrel fermented in variable sizes, 25% new. This is a really smart barrel-fermented Sauvignon. Midweight with fresh lemon and smoky grapefruit, as well as subtle oak influence. Quite delicate with a nice tapering finish. 92/100
Ornellaia 2023 Bolgheri, Italy
53% Cabernet Sauvignon, 26% Merlot, 12% Cabernet Franc, 7% Petit Verdot. Optical sorting (introduced in 2016), three weeks on skins, with fermentation temperatures kept below 28 C. Aged in barrel (70% new). This was a tricky year because of an unusually wet spring, but then from June the weather was great. This is concentrated and rich with sweet but nicely structured blackcurrant and black cherry fruit, with some chalky, grainy texture. There’s a touch of spicy oak under the fruit. Primary, vital and intense with good structure. You’d be mad to drink this now, but there’s a lot of latent potential. Superb intensity and balance. 95/100
They don’t do much extraction, but they do a lot of work with press wines. They have 80 or so press wine barrels, and they taste them a lot to see if they can make it into the main wine.
Ornellaia 2018 Bolgheri, Italy
51% Merlot, 40% Cabernet Sauvignon, 7% Cabernet Franc, 2% Petit Verdot. This was one of the wettest ever vintages. Winter was unusually cold and the spring was wet (three times normal rain until June). Good weather arrived in July. This is well balanced and has just started to evolve. It shows beautifully nuanced gravelly fruit with some subtle earthy hints under the ripe berry and blackberry fruit, with good concentration and fine-grained tannins. There’s a hint of dried herb and some balsamic character on the finish. Dry, dusty finish. This is quite lovely, finishing a bit saline. 94/100
Ornellaia 2013 Bolgheri, Italy
45% Cabernet Sauvignon, 38% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Franc, 7% Petit Verdot. Late harvest because of late budburst. Harvested finished 14 October. This is evolving nicely. It’s dry and spicy with notes of dried herbs, some mint and some iodine. It’s fresh, tannic and still quite focused and firm, with a dusty finish. Minty finish. Quite focused and savoury, and still unresolved. 94/100
Ornellaia 2008 Bolgheri, Italy
A more typical vintage. 54% Cabernet Sauvignon, 27% Merlot, 16% Cabernet Franc, 3% Petit Verdot. This is in a really good place. It’s sleek and ripe with sweet cherry and blackcurrant fruit, but also shows fine-grained structure. Starting to evolve in a really harmonious place. There’s some saltiness, some spicy detail, and a sense of harmony and balance. The fruit has a sweet core to it, with real finesse and warmth. 96/100
