Name: Ornellaia
Brand: Tenuta Dell’Ornellaia
SKU: Ornellaia - 2016 - 75cl
Price: 378.0 EUR
Availability: OutOfStock

97 Points - The wine Advocate

This is a beautiful expression of coastal Tuscany and the sunny Mediterranean. The Ornellaia 2019 Bolgheri Superiore Ornellaia (a blend of 62% Cabernet Sauvignon, 31% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc and 3% Petit Verdot) pours from the bottle with a specific darkness that has elements of both inky saturation and ruby highlights. The wine is saturated and rich—this is something you notice off the bat—but it also reveals a pleasing lightness or grace that is transmitted to both the bouquet and the palate. Dark fruit, pressed blackberry and plum mingle with more substantial aromas of spice, leather and sweetly cured tobacco. The tannins are beautifully managed, and the wine sports considerable heft and density on the palate that drives a very long and pleasurable mouthfeel.

95 Points - The wine Advocate

The 2018 Bolgheri Superiore Ornellaia is complete and seamlessly stitched together with extreme care and precision. This is an almost technical blend of Merlot (at 50% of the blend for the first time), 42% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Cabernet Franc and 3% Petit Verdot that offers a true sense of wholeness and consistency that speaks to the blending expertise and experience of the winemaking team.

Finding harmony among the various vinous components of the wine was especially important in this vintage that prized early ripening grapes like Merlot over the others. Blackberry and dried cherry segue to spice, tar, campfire ash and more sweet fruit. We're off to a great start, and this vintage of Ornellaia is surely destined to flesh out and grow more complex with age.

96 Points - The wine Advocate

The Ornellaia 2017 Bolgheri Superiore Ornellaia is generous and fruit-forward with dense richness and concentration all driven by the smaller and more compact berry size that characterizes this dry, hot growing season. Black and purple fruits segue to spice, tobacco, leather, and some of those beautiful Mediterranean notes of black olive and wild sage. These various moving pieces work together in perfect harmony.

The tannins are beautifully managed here. If you consider the more astringent and rougher approach of the mid-tier Le Serre Nuove dell'Ornellaia, this wine shows a whole other level of magnificent tannic management that could not have been easy given the diminutive berry size.

The vineyard soils are characterised by reddish sand with calcareous rock. The wine is fermented in both stainless steel and cement and is transferred over to barrique to finish malolactic fermentation. It ages in barrique for 18 months followed by another 12 months in bottle.

The 2016 Bolgheri Superiore Ornellaia is a wine of extreme complexity and precision. It offers monumental depth with profound layers of black fruit, coffee, liquorice, and baking chocolate. I tasted this 2016 vintage beside the less-impactful 2015 vintage (which was reviewed last year). These two editions are very different when compared side to side, and this 2016 release is clearly superior in terms of the quality, clarity, and intensity of its offerings.

This Ornellaia delivers glossy shine and a polished texture that segues to important richness, concentration, and textural fibre. It wraps thickly over the palate, imparting waves of sweet dark fruit and dark spice that linger for many long minutes. This beautiful wine is hitting the market now, but collectors will want to put it straight into their cellars for safekeeping.

93 Points - The wine Advocate

The 2015 Bolgheri Superiore Ornellaia is a dark, exuberant, and opulent wine that is teeming with flavour, ripeness, and extract. That said, there is also a note of impurity that I only really locked in on when I went back to taste the wine at different time intervals later in the day and the next. To be clear, it was there upon first examination, but then it blew off. And then it came back.

That game of hide and seek proved distracting and puzzling. I wondered if it was cork or barrel, although it did not behave like any of those things, and my doubt is recorded by the question mark next to my score. Once you get past that little blemish, you are instantly aware of the beauty and depth of the vintage. The wine is savoury in terms of aromas and sweet in terms of tannins. Cabernet Sauvignon flavours of dried blackberry, toasted espresso and cured tobacco play leading roles.

94 Points - The wine Advocate

To be released in May 2017, the 2014 Bolgheri Superiore Ornellaia reverts to a style and personality that we have not seen in a long while. The wine shows a tight, silky and determined approach that reminds us of the Ornellaias made under the estate's previous ownership with the Marchese Lodovico Antinori in the mid-1990s. More than anything else, this has to do with the very unique characteristics of the 2014 growing season.

The wine opens to a beautifully saturated and dark appearance. Thanks to the advanced age of the vines and their extensive root systems, fruit quality was well preserved despite the cool summer and late harvest. The wine shows sweet fruit nuances with blackberry and dark currant. Spice, leather and tobacco fill in the rear. The finish reveals just enough of that acidic prickle to assure an easy ten or fifteen year drinking window.

96 Points - The wine Advocate

This wine will be released in May 2016. The 2013 Bolgheri Superiore Ornellaia is an integrated and seamless blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Petit Verdot. Alex Heinz tells me that 2013 was a difficult vintage especially towards the early part of the growing season. It balanced out during the summer and allowed for steady ripening of fruit before the harvest.

But 2013 was not as hot as 2011 and 2012 overall, and this edition of Ornellaia is beautifully tonic and shapely as a result. The bouquet is very developed in terms of aromas this year with beautiful notes of dark fruit, tobacco, and spice. Those perfumes are just gorgeous. The mouthfeel is similarly intense with tannins that are still young but are already silky and linear in nature. This vintage promises a long aging future.

94 Points - The wine Advocate

The 2012 Bolgheri Superiore Ornellaia is very similar to the 2011 Ornellaia that precedes it. These were both hot vintages, but 2012 saw the heat towards the end of the growing season. In fact, the harvest in 2012 came two weeks earlier than average. This seamless blend shows some of the roundness and softness of that summer heat.

The wine's density and extraction are spot-on, and the bouquet is beautifully shaped by dark cherry nuances with spice, leather, and tobacco at the back. There is a gorgeous sense of richness and plushness here. Some 160,000 bottles were produced. This edition of Ornellaia is more immediate in character and less suited to the decades-long aging that cooler vintages can affront so successfully.

94 Points - The wine Advocate

The 2011 Bolgheri Superiore Ornellaia lives up to the legacy of this important wine, thanks to its extreme intensity and its skilfully crafted bouquet. The excellent quality of fruit stands clear, despite the heat of the vintage, with pristine notes of dark cherry, exotic spice, and chocolate. The results are nothing short of exuberant and this vintage will reward both those who decided to drink it early, as well as those who have the patience to wait. The only slight ruffle in this otherwise gorgeous presentation is the 2011 tannin that feels a touch aggressive. For that reason, it’s probably better to put the wine aside in your cellar.

98 Points - The wine Advocate

Poured from the special anniversary bottle, the 2010 Bolgheri Superiore Ornellaia is a truly outstanding wine that leaves a lasting memory for those who are lucky enough to enjoy it. What stands out is the absolutely seamless-seamless-seamless (yes, it's worth repeating three times) integration of its many moving parts. The wine magically transitions from cherry, spice, chocolate and espresso in one melodic and continuous loop. It exudes balance and elegance over long, delicious minutes. It is profoundly impressive.

97 Points - The wine Advocate

The 2009 Ornellaia caresses the palate with layers of seamless, radiant fruit. Sweet red berries, mocha, flowers, new leather and spices are some of the many notes that are layered in this sumptuous, totally beautiful wine. The 2009 stands out for its silky tannins and phenomenal overall balance. This is one of those wines that will probably enjoy a long drinking window. There is little question the ability to blend grape varieties was a huge help in this vintage. In my opinion, that is the main reason Ornellaia is a slightly more complete wine than Masseto in 2009. In one of my blind tastings, the 2009 made a very eloquent case for itself as the wine of the vintage.

97 Points - The wine Advocate

The 2006 Ornellaia flows from the glass in a profound expression of ripe, dark fruit. With time in the glass layers of minerals, cassis, tar, sweet herbs and French oak emerge, adding further complexity. This harmonious Ornellaia combines the richness of the vintage with superb freshness and awesome balance. Today the wine’s sheer density almost manages to hide the tannins, but they are there, and the wine will ultimately benefit from a few years in the cellar. The 2006 Ornellaia is one of the highlights of this sensational Tuscan vintage.

93 Points - The wine Advocate

The medium-bodied 2005 Ornellaia shows plenty of delineation in its dark cherries, blueberries, spices, minerals and crushed rocks. The 2005 doesn’t have the detail of the 2004 or the richness of the 2006, but it does offer notable finesse and clarity in an understated style for this wine. My impression is that this will be a relatively early-maturing vintage of Ornellaia, which is not a bad thing, considering the age-worthiness of the two vintages which surround it. It is a big success in this vintage.

95 Points - The wine Advocate

This strong series of 2004s continues with the gorgeous 2004 Ornellaia. A lively dark ruby, it is a vibrant effort bursting with expressive aromatics and layered, well-delineated fruit, showing much purity on the palate and closing with a long, finessed finish. Readers hoping to catch this wine’s full array of nuances will have to wait at least another few years as the wine remains quite primary today. This exquisite effort is not to be missed.

93 Points - The wine Advocate

The opulent 2003 Ornellaia presents a dramatic contrast to the 2004 in its super-ripe, open nose and jammy dark fruit. Ample and warm on the palate, it is clearly the product of a very hot vintage, yet it shows notable freshness along with much persistence, great overall balance, and a lingering note of sweetness on the finish.

93 Points - The wine Advocate

The opulent 2003 Ornellaia presents a dramatic contrast to the 2004 in its super-ripe, open nose and jammy dark fruit. Ample and warm on the palate, it is clearly the product of a very hot vintage, yet it shows notable freshness along with much persistence, great overall balance, and a lingering note of sweetness on the finish.

93 Points - The wine Advocate

The opulent 2003 Ornellaia presents a dramatic contrast to the 2004 in its super-ripe, open nose and jammy dark fruit. Ample and warm on the palate, it is clearly the product of a very hot vintage, yet it shows notable freshness along with much persistence, great overall balance, and a lingering note of sweetness on the finish.

92 Points - The wine Advocate

The 2002 Ornellaia (65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot and 5% Petit Verdot) is an astoundingly good wine considering the vintage. A vibrant dark ruby/violet, it offers suggestions of herbs, tobacco, earthiness and dark red fruit with excellent length and notable structure. Although it doesn’t have the concentration or length of the best vintages, it displays terrific overall balance and is undoubtedly a huge overachiever for which General Manager/Agronomist Leonardo Raspini and his entire team deserve much credit.

96 Points - The wine Advocate

The 2001 Ornellaia is easily the finest in the history of the estate, warm and spicy on the nose with superbly focused plum and black currant fruit, much complexity and elegance in its concentrated and supple body, and a velvety, enveloping close. It will easily drink well for another two decades.

91 Points - The wine Advocate

The 2000 Ornellaia is notably different than the 1999, less concentrated in colour due to the high temperatures of the growing season, significantly more alcoholic, but with much sweet black currant fruit, velvety and balanced flavours, and a round, smooth finish. Rather forward for a wine of its type, it should nonetheless provide fine drinking.

88 Points - The wine Advocate

The 1996 Ornellaia is one of the less-polished wines in this tasting. The tannins are a touch harsh and prominent, while the aromas and flavours tend towards fully mature suggestions of truffles and beef bouillon. The wine spent 18 months in French oak, 60% new.

95 Points - The wine Advocate

The 2020 Ornellaia is made with Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot with small percentages of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. It opens to an impenetrable, full-bodied approach with dark fruit, pencil shaving, toasted oak, Spanish cedar, campfire ash and iron ore. For sure, this is an especially concentrated and oak-driven vintage of this iconic wine. It absolutely requires more ageing time. It feels quite tight and firm in its youth. The concentration is abundant.

Ornellaia

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