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Ornellaia, “25th Anniversary” Bolgheri Superiore

Tuscany, Italy 2010 (750mL)
Regular price$265.00
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Ornellaia, “25th Anniversary” Bolgheri Superiore

I’ll start with a caveat: Our parcel of today’s epic, decade-old benchmark is so small we considered not sending this email, since many subscribers are likely to be left empty-handed. This 2010 from Tuscany’s iconic Ornellaia, acquired from a private collection in perfect condition, is not merely the stuff of near-perfect critics’ scores but the 25th-anniversary bottling of the wine. This is history. As one of the foundational wine estates in Tuscany’s Bolgheri growing zone, Ornellaia really needs no introduction: Along with Sassicaia, it’s the wine that put the “super-Tuscan” category permanently on the world wine map, a Bordeaux-style blend that eclipsed many of the wines that inspired it—and cemented Bolgheri’s reputation as a world-class terroir for the Cabernets, Merlot, and the other classic Bordeaux grapes.
Starting with its charismatic founder, Marchese Lodovico Antinori, and continuing through a succession of owners that included the late Robert Mondavi and Tuscany’s powerful Frescobaldi family, Ornellaia is an Italian “First Growth”—the Latour to Sassicaia’s Lafite, grown on Tuscany’s sparse, cypress-studded Mediterranean coast. Normally, a wine like this is only found on restaurant wine lists or fine-wine auction catalogs, but we got lucky, so a few of you will, too. Act fast—just two bottles per person until it’s gone!
Located along the Tuscan coast south of Livorno, the Bolgheri area—which became an official controlled appellation (DOC) only in 1983—was originally made famous in the early 1970s by Marchese Mario Incisa della Rocchetta, whose “Sassicaia” regularly out-performed Classified-Growth Bordeaux in blind tastings. The Marchese, originally from Piedmont, was married to Lodovico Antinori’s maternal aunt, and it was her family’s land that originally gave rise to Sassicaia as well as the neighboring estates of Ornellaia and Guado al Tasso (the latter part of the vast empire of Lodovico’s brother, Piero). From the jump, Lodovico’s project was a star-studded affair: In 1981, he started planting vineyards under the supervision of Hungarian winemaking legend Tibor Gál, and a few years later the famed Bordeaux consultant Michel Rolland came aboard; in the late 1990s, Robert Mondavi invested in Ornellaia, eventually taking a controlling interest before selling it to another Tuscan winemaking powerhouse, Frescobaldi.

Located right next to Sassicaia, Ornellaia is positioned along the first major “rise” you encounter as you move a few kilometers inland from the Mediterranean, a point at which more loamy, sandy soils give way to more clay and limestone—almost like progressing from Bordeaux’s left to right “banks.” It was determined early on that this mild, maritime-influence climate, combined with the soil composition, bore a stronger resemblance to Bordeaux than the Sangiovese-heavy hills of central Tuscany, so Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and the rest of the Bordeaux varieties took root—and performed magnificently. Like Sassicaia, Ornellaia has always been modeled after the greatest, spare-no-expense châteaux of Bordeaux, with this wine serving as the estate’s Grand Vin. As in Bordeaux, the final blend varies from year to year: In 2010, it was 53% Cabernet Sauvignon, 39% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc, and 4% Petit Verdot, aged more than 18 months in 70% new French oak barriques and another year in bottle before its initial release.

Axel Heinz has been the winemaker at Ornellaia since 2005, and describes 2010 as one of the “coolest and latest-ripening in recent years,” yielding “one of the most elegant expressions of Ornellaia.” Our parcel, obtained from an impeccably maintained private collection in California, is in perfect condition—and yes, we did open a bottle to check on 2010’s progress. How could we not? The vintage, as a quick spin through the many reviews of this wine will confirm, was a historic one in many parts of Italy and further afield in Europe: The wines are powerful but perfectly balanced, and Ornellaia’s is just now getting started. Give this still-dense, nearly opaque garnet-colored red time to blossom in a decanter and you’re rewarded with a rush of blackcurrant, raspberry, cassis, licorice, tar, damp tobacco, cedar box, Christmas spices, bay leaf, wet gravel, and cacao nibs. It is full-bodied and still in a dense, brooding state right now, so give it plenty of time (maybe even chip away at it over a few days) if you just can’t wait to dig in. Otherwise, 10-15+ years more in the cellar are well within its reach. Whenever you open it, decant at least 60 minutes before serving at 60-65 degrees in your best Bordeaux stems, while making your best possible effort in the kitchen to showcase it. You could go beefy and Tuscan with a well-seared ribeye, or more Frenchified with some confit duck legs or seared duck breast with a wine reduction. You’ve got to go big is what I’m saying. There’s no other way!
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Italy

Northwestern Italy

Piedmont

Italy’s Piedmont region is really a wine “nation”unto itself, producing world-class renditions of every type of wine imaginable: red, white, sparkling, sweet...you name it! However, many wine lovers fixate on the region’s most famous appellations—Barolo and Barbaresco—and the inimitable native red that powers these wines:Nebbiolo.

Tuscany

Chianti

The area known as “Chianti” covers a major chunk of Central Tuscany, from Pisa to Florence to Siena to Arezzo—and beyond. Any wine with “Chianti” in its name is going to contain somewhere between 70% to 100% Sangiovese, and there are eight geographically specific sub-regions under the broader Chianti umbrella.

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