2010 Ornellaia

This is a dazzling set of wines from Tenuta dell'Ornellaia. Winemaker Axel Heinz describes 2010 as the most atypical vintage he has ever seen. The harvest got off to a very late start, but ended in line with years such as 2004 and 2005. As an example, in 2010 Ornellaia started bringing in the Merlot on September 13, whereas in most years the entire Merlot crop is in the cellar by that date. The estate did more leaf pulling than normal in order to get the fruit ripe. Over the years, Ornellaia's wines from later harvests, even those of much lower overall quality, have aged exceptionally well. I expect that will be the case here as well. I also tasted the 2011s, from a diametrically opposite vintage, right after bottling. Those wines have the highest dry extracts ever seen at Ornellaia. It will be fascinating to see how the 2011s develop in the next year. Readers might want to see this video interview with Axel Heinz or my impressions of the 2010s, also on video.