Italy Report # GX
Apr 2007 |
Antonio Galloni |
95 |
Drink 2011 - 2019 |
$125-$213 |
| The gorgeous 2004 Ornellaia
is a great way to start this tasting. 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. A blend of 60% Cabernet
Sauvignon, 25% Merlot, 12% Cabernet Franc and 3% Petit Verdot.
95/Anticipated maturity: 2011-2019. Tenuta dell’Ornellaia is
without question one of Italy’s blue-chip properties. The
gorgeous, sprawling estate is located in Bolgheri in Tuscany’s
Maremma. On a recent visit I had the opportunity to taste a
number of the estate’s wines with General Manager/Agronomist
Leonardo Raspini and Oenologist Axel Heinz, including verticals
of the estate’s top bottlings Ornellaia and Masseto. Ornellaia
is a Bordeaux-inspired blend consisting principally of Cabernet
Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot. In 2003 a small percentage
of Petit Verdot was introduced. The use of several varietals
gives the winemaking team the luxury of being able to tailor the
exact proportion of the blend to the specific strengths of a
given vintage. Because the blend tends to vary from year to year
in a vertical tasting Ornellaia shows many different facets of
its personality. After harvest the varietals are vinified
separately. Fermentation and maceration lasts between 25-30 days
after which the wines are moved into French oak barrels where
they age for 12 months. The wines are then racked and assembled
into the final blend, which spends an additional six months in
barrel prior to being bottled. The percentage of new oak has
risen from 50%, which was used for vintages 1997 and 1998, to
60% used in 1999, to the 70% the estate has employed since 2000. |
|
|