Tenuta dell’Ornellaia: Ornellaia
and Masseto 1997-2004&nbsp; 

<table>
 <tbody><tr>
 <td>
 2004 Tenuta
 dell’Ornellaia
 </td>
 <td>
 Ornellaia
 </td>
 <td>
 95
 </td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>
 2003 Tenuta
 dell’Ornellaia
 </td>
 <td>
 Ornellaia
 </td>
 <td>
 93
 </td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>
 2002 Tenuta
 dell’Ornellaia
 </td>
 <td>
 Ornellaia
 </td>
 <td>
 92
 </td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>
 2001 Tenuta
 dell’Ornellaia
 </td>
 <td>
 Ornellaia
 </td>
 <td>
 94
 </td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>
 2000 Tenuta
 dell’Ornellaia
 </td>
 <td>
 Ornellaia 
 </td>
 <td>
 92
 </td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>
 1999 Tenuta
 dell’Ornellaia
 </td>
 <td>
 Ornellaia
 </td>
 <td>
 95
 </td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>
 1998 Tenuta
 dell’Ornellaia
 </td>
 <td>
 Ornellaia
 </td>
 <td>
 91
 </td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>
 1997 Tenuta
 dell’Ornellaia
 </td>
 <td>
 Ornellaia
 </td>
 <td>
 93
 </td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>
 2004 Tenuta
 dell’Ornellaia
 </td>
 <td>
 Masseto
 </td>
 <td>
 97
 </td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>
 2003 Tenuta
 dell’Ornellaia
 </td>
 <td>
 Masseto
 </td>
 <td>
 93
 </td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>
 2002 Tenuta
 dell’Ornellaia
 </td>
 <td>
 Masseto
 </td>
 <td>
 90
 </td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>
 2001 Tenuta
 dell’Ornellaia
 </td>
 <td>
 Masseto
 </td>
 <td>
 97
 </td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>
 2000 Tenuta
 dell’Ornellaia
 </td>
 <td>
 Masseto
 </td>
 <td>
 91
 </td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>
 1999 Tenuta
 dell’Ornellaia
 </td>
 <td>
 Masseto
 </td>
 <td>
 95
 </td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>
 1998 Tenuta
 dell’Ornellaia
 </td>
 <td>
 Masseto
 </td>
 <td>
 93
 </td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>
 1997 Tenuta dell’Ornellaia
 </td>
 <td>
 Masseto
 </td>
 <td>
 94
 </td>
 </tr>
</tbody></table>

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. 

The 100% Merlot Masseto, on the
other hand, has proven to be a wine of greater singularity. Its unique,
unmistakable personality always comes through, especially in a set of widely
diverse vintages, as this vertical attests. The Masseto vineyard measures roughly
7 hectares. Set on a gently sloping hill, the vineyard is divided into three
sections which contain different clay-based soil types. The structure of
Masseto comes from the central portion of the vineyard (Masseto Centrale),
where the terrain is most compact. Towards the upper part of the hillside (Masseto
Alto) the soils contain a higher percentage of rocks and thus yield wines that
are more aromatic. The lower stretch of the vineyard, known as “Masseto
Junior,” is also the most recent to be planted. According to Raspini the fruit
from these vines bridges the qualities of the wines from the central and upper portions
of the vineyard and thus serves to give Masseto its finesse and balance. There is
also a small amount of fruit that comes from the “Vigna Vecchia” plot which is
the source of the Merlot that is used for Ornellaia. 

Each parcel is harvested and
vinified separately. Fermentation and maceration typically last around 25 days,
give or take, depending on the quality of the fruit, after which the wines are
moved into 100% new French oak barrels for the malolactic fermentations. The
wines spend 12 months in oak prior to being assembled, after which the final
blend spends an additional 12 months in oak prior to being bottled. 

“Our last three vintages could not have
been more different,” explains General Manager/Agronomist Leonardo Raspini.
“For us 2004 was a terrific vintage, one that combines very high quality with
quantity. It may sound hard to believe but here those two go hand in hand. The
weather throughout the summer and into the fall was very stable which allowed
us to pick each parcel at the optimum level of ripeness. We are happy with all
of our wines, from top to bottom.” 

“2003 was of course a very hot vintage.
Other than leaving as much leaf cover as possible there wasn’t much we could
do. It was an exceedingly dry summer although we did get a little rain in mid-
September which helped the later-ripening Cabernet Franc and Cabernet
Sauvignon. Unfortunately the Merlot was too far along in its maturation for the
rain to have any effect. Because we had better results with our Cabernet
Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc in 2003, Ornellaia contains a higher percentage of
those varietals. It was an even more challenging vintage for Merlot. For our
Masseto we were only able to use the oldest, central part of the vineyard. That
said, the vines held up well and our harvest was only a week or so earlier than
normal. Relative to other vintages the polyphenol readings were lower than
usual so we did slightly longer fermentations to try to extract as much as
possible from the fruit. Our overall production was down about 30%.” 

“Vintage 2002 was a different story
altogether. The summer, especially August, was very rainy. It was clear pretty
early on that we wouldn’t be able to make the kind of wines we like most, those
that express the power of Bolgheri. So we opted for a more varietal expression
in the wines. In the cellar our vinifications were pretty much in line with
what we do most years. We made our biggest adjustments in the aging of the
wines, leaving them in oak for a shorter time than is normally the case.” 

“In 2001 we suffered damage from an early
April frost which reduced our production by 10-15% right off the bat. Since the
damage was quite random, our work in the vineyards centered around trying to
restore balance within each plant, rather than do the more universal
green-harvesting that was required in a naturally abundant vintage like 2004.
What makes the 2001s special is that the plants concentrated all of their
energy on the remaining fruit from the very beginning of the growing season, as
opposed to 2004 in which we had to reduce the load on the plants several times.” 

“In 2000 we experienced an
accelerated maturation of sugars due to a spell of heat from mid-August to
mid-September. We were forced to pick somewhat earlier than we would have
liked, and we ended up with slightly dried out fruit and seeds that had not
reached full phenolic ripeness. This was especially evident in the Merlot,
while the Cabernet Sauvignon was more resistant to the heat owing to the firmer
texture of the stems. On the other hand conditions during 1999 were close to
perfect. We had a hot summer, but calm weather during the harvest, which gave
us the luxury of harvesting under tranquil conditions. Because the fruit had so
much potential in the cellar we wanted to extract as much as possible during
the vinifications and we may have taken the maceration times a bit too far. As
a result, the wines have been very slow to mature and are just now starting to
show their true potential.” 

“When it comes to the 1998s I think
you taste the heat of the vintage, but that characteristic is tempered by the
cool breezes from the sea, which were especially prevalent that year. At the
time we didn’t have the sorting table we have today so the selection process
was less rigid. Some of the stems were a little green and that comes through in
the lean personalities on the wines as well as the slightly vegetal note the
wines show on the finish. 1997 was another year that started with a spring
frost that reduced production at the outset. Even though it was a hot vintage,
the wines have retained a fair amount of freshness and it is mostly on the
finish where the warmth of the vintage is felt.” 

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. The
opulent 2003 Ornellaia (60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Merlot, 20% Cabernet
Franc and 5% Petit Verdot) presents a dramatic&nbsp;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/Anticipated
maturity: 2008-2018.

The estate’s 2002s show why Tenuta
dell’Ornellaia is one of Italy’s premier properties. Those obsessed with points
will chase the higher rated 2003s and 2004s, but consumers who buy wines to
drink them would do well to consider these 2002s especially given that pricing
should be favorable. The 2002s are by no means the equal of the estate’s top
wines but they will offer useful drinking while the more important vintages
reach maturity.&nbsp; 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. 92/Anticipated maturity: 2008-2017. 

The super-finessed 2001 Ornellaia (65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot and 5% Cabernet Franc) opens with a deeply
expressive nose. It is a concentrated full-bodied effort. The appearance of
tobacco and licorice suggest that this wine is entering the early portion of is
maturity, but there is plenty of fruit as well as structure to support another
decade of aging. 94/Anticipated
maturity: 2007-2017. Nothing in particular stands out about the 2000 Ornellaia, instead the whole is
clearly greater than the sum of its parts. This blend of 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot and 5% Cabernet Franc is a seamless beauty, showing exceptional purity with notable length on the
palate and no hard edges. While the 2000 may not have the structure or
complexity of the best vintages it will provide exceptional drinking now and to
age 15, give or take. 92/Anticipated
maturity: 2007-2015. I was blown away by the 1999 Ornellaia. Still fresh and youthful, it reveals a powerful, authoritative
personality in its layers of primary fruit, with its opulence beautifully
balanced by its big yet polished tannins. Another year or two of bottle age is
probably called for but readers will have a hard time keeping their hands off
this gorgeous wine. Given its considerable structure it should have no problem aging
for another dozen years. In 1999 the blend consisted of 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot and 5% Cabernet Franc. 95/Anticipated maturity:
2009-2019. 

The 1998 is a decidedly slender Ornellaia.
More advanced than the 1999, it shows notes of tobacco, herbs and ripe fruit on
a medium-bodied frame with good length on the palate and slightly less polished
tannins than is usually the case. The final
blend in 1998 was 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Merlot and 5% Cabernet Franc. 91/Anticipated maturity: 2008-2018.
The estate’s 1997 Ornellaia (65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot and 5% Cabernet Franc) combines the large-framed opulence of the 1999 with the slightly more
herbal notes found in the 1998. It is a big, plump wine packed with layers of
fruit and well-integrated oak, showing outstanding length and the telltale note
of sweetness on the finish that defines this vintage. Despite its approachable
nature today, the 1997 appears to have enough structure to drink well for
another decade. Both the 1997 Ornellaia and Masseto enjoyed a very strong
showing in this tasting. 93/Anticipated
maturity: 2007-2017. 

The stunning 2004 Masseto, first tasted from barrel in September 2006, presents
layers of sweet jammy dark fruit and mineral notes that burst forth from the
glass with notable length, purity and delineation. It is a decidedly elegant
and super-refined Masseto that continues to integrate its 100% new oak well,
showing extraordinary class and fine, silky-textured tannins that caress the
palate on the long finish. The 2004 will be hard to resist in its youth as it
is incredibly delicious even now, yet it promises to develop gracefully to at
least age 20. The 2004 Masseto is a phenomenal effort that is not to be missed.
My initial barrel score (94-97) was confirmed by two recent tastings of the
finished wine from bottle. 97/Anticipated
maturity: 2011-2024. The 2003 Masseto opens with a huge, expressive
super-ripe nose. Ample and expansive on the palate, it displays much opulence
in its generous fruit, with awesome concentration, outstanding length and a lovely
vein of minerality which provides a level of freshness that is surprising for
the vintage. A lingering note of sweetness punctuates the long finish. It
should drink well for at least another decade, although it is absolutely
irresistible today. It is a stunning wine. Owing to the challenging nature of
the vintage, in 2003 Masseto was made only from the central part of the
vineyard which is planted with the oldest vines. 93/Anticipated maturity: 2007-2017. 

The 2002 Masseto is a strong
effort, made all the more notable given the poor overall quality of the
vintage. It presents an herbal profile on the nose along with notes of tobacco,
black pepper and white truffle that emerge with some time in the glass. On the
palate it is a decidedly slender Masseto, with less concentration than is
typical of this wine, but the fruit is vibrant and fresh, the oak well
integrated, and it offers much persistence as well as length in a more linear
expression of this wine. While the 2002 will never compete with the best
Massetos, on an absolute level it is a lovely wine that clearly has the
potential to offer some surprises down the road. 90/Anticipated maturity: 2008-2017. In just a few short
years the 2001 Masseto has become one of Italy’s most collectible wines,
and this tasting confirmed that it is fully deserving of the accolades it has
received. The 2001 is an extraordinary Masseto, bursting with layers of vibrant
fruit intermingled with finely nuanced suggestions of minerals, menthol and
eucalyptus. Boasting superb concentration and length on the palate, it is a
powerful wine that is in need of at least another few years of cellaring. 97/Anticipated maturity: 2011-2021. 

Readers looking for a more mature Masseto might want to consider the 2000. It presents a more evolved set of
earth, tobacco and roasted coffee bean aromas and flavors along with ripe dark
fruit. Although it displays plenty of concentration and length on the palate
its slightly coarse tannins are those of a merely good, but not great vintage. 91/Anticipated maturity: 2007-2017.
With the 1999 vintage Masseto returns to another powerful,
fresh and vibrant expression of this wine. Conveying an impression of youth,
the 1999 Masseto reveals layers of dark fruit that open in the glass with much
persistence on the palate and terrific overall balance. It is stunning vintage
for this wine. 95/ Anticipated
maturity: 2009-2019. 

The 1998 Masseto is another wine that is drinking particularly well
today. It is opulent and expansive on the palate, where it offers plenty of
ripe dark fruit along with more advanced notes of tobacco, showing much length
and style although the tannins finish slightly hard and dry. 93/Anticipated maturity: 2008-2018. The
estate’s 1997 Masseto has developed
beautifully over the last few years. It offers a heady combination of
super-ripe fruit intermingled with notes of spices, herbs and tobacco. Full-bodied
and vibrant, it comes across as packed with fruit, displaying superb length and
a long finish framed by the lingering note of sweetness that defines this warm
vintage. Despite its open, luxurious personality, there is plenty of structure
underneath to support at least another decade of aging. 94/Anticipated maturity: 2007-2017. 

--Antonio Galloni

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