2003 Ornellaia

Tenuta dell’Ornellaia is the brainchild of Lodovico Antinori, who founded this gorgeous, sprawling estate in Tuscany’s Maremma in 1981. Vines were planted in 1982 and the first vintages were overseen by the legendary oenologist and winemaker Andre Tchelistcheff. Today Ornellaia is owned by the Frescobaldi family, but like all of the Frescobaldi properties, it is run independently. The estate produces a wide range of wines, from the entry-level Le Volte to the super-premium Merlot Masseto. To me, though, it is the Cabernet Sauvignon-based Ornellaia which truly captures the essence of these unique vineyards and microclimates. Early vintages of Ornellaia were predominantly Cabernet Sauvignon, typically 75-80%, with Merlot and Cabernet Franc playing supporting roles. Beginning in 1996 the percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon was reduced and Merlot took on a more prominent role, reaching the 30% or so that is customary today. In 2003 Petit Verdot was introduced as the fourth variety in the blend. Of course, the final blend each year is a result of vintage conditions. Other significant stylistic changes include increased selection in the vineyards and cellar with the introduction of a second wine, Le Serre Nuove, in 1997, which subsequently led to a more concentrated style in Ornellaia. Over the years the estate increased its use of new French oak barrels from roughly 40% in the first vintages to the 70% or so that is the norm these days. Fermentation and maceration times have also moved up from the 15-20 days that was typical early on to roughly 25-30 days that is common in recent vintages. Great attention is given to viticulture and winemaking. Each of the varieties and parcels is harvested, vinified and aged separately, a process that can include as many as 60 or so separate component wines. Fermentation takes place partly in wood and partly in steel, while the malolactic fermentation is finished in French oak barrels. The wines are aged separately for roughly twelve months. The final blend is assembled and the wines are racked back into oak for a further six months. Generally Ornellaia is neither fined nor filtered prior to being bottled, although in some vintages the estate performs a light fining.

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. “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%.”

“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 wins, 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 Massseto 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 a 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 the wines in oak for a shorter time than is normally the case.” In a similar vein, the 2002 and 2003 vintages demonstrate why Masseto is Italy's most consistently outstanding Merlot. Neither vintage presented anything resembling ideal conditions yet the wines have turned out beautifully. 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.

Agronomist Leonardo Raspini shook his head when I asked him about the 2003 vintage. "Hot? Our average daily temperature in June was 25.8�C, when normally it's closer to 21�C, and there were many nights when it never went below 30�C," he told me. Yet Ornellaia, thanks in large measure to its uniquely situated vineyards, wasn't forced to harvest quite as early as other estates. "We picked some merlot on August 23rd," Raspini said, "but mainly from the 30th to the 10th of September. We didn't touch the merlot for Masseto until the 22nd and 23rd of September, and the grapes from the central portion of the vineyard weren't harvested until the 30th, which was unheard of in the area in 2003." Masseto's vineyard is located in a specific geological formation characterized by deep clays of different origins and age, and the soil content helps to explain the wine's uniqueness. "Still, we only made half the usual number of bottles," Raspini added. "Of the four different parcels that yield the grapes for Masseto, we were only able to use those that came from the central three-hectare plot, which is always the best, year in and year out. The other three suffered too much from the heat." Both '03 and '02 are excellent performances for their respective vintages.