ornellaia bolgheri superiore 2020 750ml

If there’s an Italian wine that collectors revere like First Growth Bordeaux and cult California Cabernet, it’s Ornellaia. The icon stands shoulder to shoulder with its $500–$800+ Medoc counterparts—and, as Antonio Galloni of Vinous said, has “never failed to literally send shivers down my spine.”

The 2020 edition, the product of a warm vintage, is one of the most seductive ever produced. Wine Advocate called it a “broad and generous expression…that speaks to the very best of Italian winemaking.” Ornellaia estate director Axel Heinz, in tribute to the wine’s impeccable balance, named it “La Proporzione.”

Ornellaia’s superb longevity was palpable when we visited the estate a few summers ago, and the property drips with pedigree. The original Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Cabernet Franc vines were planted by legendary enologist André Tchelistcheff, who told founder Lodovico Antinori that the land was a viticultural “El Dorado.” 

Barely three miles from the glimmering Tuscan coast, we could see what he meant. The maritime breeze is a welcome respite from Italy’s sultry summer heat—a key to keeping the wine equal parts “sumptuous and racy,” as Galloni once described it.

Heinz is “one of the world’s most in-demand winemakers,” according to Galloni, and for the 2020 Ornellaia, Heinz’s team, led by winemaker Olga Fusari, handpicked the grapes and sorted them twice, once by hand and once optically. After a three-week maceration and fermentation, the wine spent 18 months in 70% new oak barrels—one year before assemblage, and another six months after.

The result, as Advocate put it, is a “generous and opulent” Ornellaia that’s showing beautifully now and promises a long evolution in the cellar.  

CRITICAL ACCLAIM

JS98, James Suckling

"Alluring aromas of lead pencil and currants with crushed stone and iodine. Full-bodied with hemmed in tannins that are tight and focused. Very fresh and energetic with wonderful length and intensity for this vintage. Needs four or five years to come together. Better in 2028 and onwards."

RP97, Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

"Tasted from barrel, the 2020 Bolgheri Superiore Ornellaia will be presented in the fall but won’t hit the market until spring of the following year. This is a beauty, so generous and opulent with fully seamless transitions. The wine’s traditional blend is mostly Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot with tiny percentages of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot, although this warm vintage makes do with a pinch less of the Cabernet Sauvignon. Fruit is selected across 107 hectares of Ornellaia vines, although the estate recently purchased an additional eight hectares next to Guado al Tasso in Castagneto Carducci, with terraces and vines aged between 15 and 28 years old. This broad and generous expression has a beautiful quality of fruit and oak that speaks to the very best of Italian winemaking."

JD96, Jeb Dunnuck

"The 2020 Ornellaia is 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 28% Merlot, and the rest Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot, raised in 70% new French oak for 18 months, with another 12 months in bottle prior to release. Flush with herbs and menthol, blackberry, and cedar, it is full bodied and fills the sides of the mouth with rounded fruit of luxurious plum, black cherry, and toast, with supple and velvety tannins. Drink 2026-2046."

D96, Decanter

"Estate director Axel Heinz called 2020 ‘a classic Ornellaia,’ and picked the theme of ‘La Proporzione‘ (proportion) to describe its character. Indeed, the blend of 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 32% Merlot, 13% Cabernet Franc and 5% Petit Verdot marks a return to a more typical blend following the pendulum swings of 62% Cabernet Sauvignon in 2019, and 51% Merlot in 2018. Fine-grained and beautifully textured, its finely integrated tannins support a concentration of black fruits lightened by red berries. Aromas of black cherry, liquorice, dark chocolate, cedar and damp earth make for a fragrant wine, accompanied by menthol and balsamic streaks which run through the wine and impart plenty of freshness. It finishes with a stony and salty element along with some chocolatey and woody hints. Tight and moreish, its ripeness of fruit combined with freshness and structure adeptly tells the story of this earlier-ripening vintage. It lacks complexity in the mouth – this will come with time – but the array of aromas gives a hint of what is to come."

WS96, Wine Spectator

"Inviting aromas of blackberry, black currant, anise, cedar, vanilla and tobacco draw you in to this red, which is sleek and open on the palate. This is so well-balanced, it's approachable now, yet there's a bit of reserve too. The fruit flavors are prominent on the finish, along with mineral and spice notes, while the lasting impression is a salty, flinty element. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot."

750ml Bottle