2023 Le Volte dell’Ornellaia

These new releases from Ornellaia are very good examples for their respective vintages. Le Volte is especially fine in 2023. Its combination of floral top notes and vibrant fruit is quite appealing. The flagship Ornellaia shows how advantaged blends are in challenging vintages such as 2022. Fine tuning makes all the difference. That is so evident in tasting it next to some of the single-variety wines of Bolgheri. The 2022 is the last vintage vinified by Estate Director Axel Heinz, who left in early 2023. The new team led by Winemaker Denise Cosentino and Production Manager Marco Balsimelli finished and bottled the 2022s. Yields are down because of intense heat and drought. The winemaking team favored light extractions, with a bit more time on the skins than typical for the Merlot, as it was harder to extract. The 2023 whites strike me as quite giving and accessible, even in the early going.