Winemaker Notes
Blend: 53% Cabernet Sauvignon, 23% Merlot, 17% Cabernet Franc, 7% Petit Verdot
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2015 Ornellaia was another top wine of the evening and was tasted and opened alongside numerous bottles of 2015 Sassicaia. Pouring a saturated red color, it reveals a seductive bouquet with crushed lavender, redcurrants, fresh leather, and forest earth. Full-bodied, it’s supple and refined, with polished tannins and a silky texture, its more noble structure holding it all together with incredible length.
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James Suckling
A restrained and earthy wine with well-defined cassis, milk chocolate, underbrush and smoke aromas. It’s full-bodied with a firm, mid-palate mouthfeel and muscular yet perfectly woven tannins. It’s elegant in the finish, with fresh acidity balancing the warmth.
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Wine Spectator
A big, brooding red, packed with blackberry, plum and earth flavors, all wrapped in spicy oak. Monolithic now, finishing with saline mineral elements, a leafy, tobacco edge and dense, mouthcoating tannins. Terrific potential. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. Best from 2023 through 2038.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: Ornellaia is always in line as one of the best wines in the world. The 2015 vintage is outstanding. TASTING NOTES: This wine is bold and alluring at the same time. Its aromas and flavors of powerful black fruits, a slice of minerality, and the textures of oak. Pair it with a magnificent meal with your best wine pals, and incredible food as well. (Tasted: March 5, 2019, San Francisco, CA)
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Decanter
2015 is a celebrated vintage due to its powerful character. Considerable warmth produced extremely thick-skinned grapes, and the harvest for Ornellaia started in the middle of September with Merlot from Ginestraio, continuing on to the first week of October for Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc from Bellaria: such is the skeleton of this wine. It's showing generous cassis fruit with meat, leather and vanilla notes, alongside some dark cigar leaf and spice in depth. The palate is full and velvety with a chalky finish - a powerful Ornellaia to cellar, yet not without suppleness.
In 1981, Marchese Lodovico Antinori breathed new life into Tenuta dell' Ornellaia, an estate whose potential had been ignored for decades. With the help of Andre Tchelistcheff, the famous agronomist, Antinori planted the first French vines in Bolgheri, which lies in the heart of Tuscany's coastal region, Maremma. The estate yields some of the finest Sangiovese, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Cabernet Franc in Tuscany. In 2002, Marchesi de' Frescobaldi and Robert Mondavi became owners of Tenuta dell'Ornellaia, which is now owned exclusively by Marchesi de' Frescobaldi.
Ornellaia has established itself among the iconic wine estates in Italy (and beyond). The estate is dedicated to producing charming and opulent wines, full of Mediterranean character and finesse, reflecting the estate’s unique terroir in Bolgheri on the Tuscan coast. The combination of Bolgheri’s unique soils and growing conditions, and what can only be characterized as a total obsession with excellence, result in the world-class wines from Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Sauvignon Blanc that so many wine lovers across the world have come to cherish.
Ornellaia employs a full time team of 80 people whose passion and motivation make Ornellaia what it is today. No shortcuts in the part of the production are allowed and the details literally come down to a grape by grape basis. Wines are intently crafted to capture the character of each vintage, in all its complexity and facets. In fact, the character and intricacies of each individual vintage are so important to the estate that since vintage 2006, Winemaker and Estate Director Axel Heinz has identified a single word that captures the character of each vintage, and that word is interpreted by a contemporary artist who produces special labels and a site-specific work of art that remains part of the estate’s permanent collection.
In addition to its place among Italy’s iconic wines, Ornellaia is also an ambassador for the Bolgheri region, leading it to be recognized as one of Italy’s greatest winegrowing regions. It is their belief, and it is hard to argue, that Bogheri’s mild maritime climate and diversity of soils create wines as distinct, complex and pleasurable as any in the world.
Legendary in Italy for its Renaissance art and striking landscape, Tuscany is also home to many of the country’s best red wines. Sangiovese reigns supreme here, as either the single varietal, or a dominant player, in almost all of Tuscany’s best.
A remarkable Chianti, named for its region of origin, will have a bright acidity, supple tannins and plenty of cherry fruit character. From the hills and valleys surrounding the medieval village of Montalcino, come the distinguished and age-worthy wines based on Brunello (Sangiovese). Earning global acclaim since the 1970s, the Tuscan Blends are composed solely of international grape varieties or a mix of international and Sangiovese. The wine called Vine Nobile di Montepulciano, composed of Prognolo Gentile (Sangiovese) and is recognized both for finesse and power.