Winemaker Notes
This complex wine brings ripe fruit aromas such as peach and mango, paired with elegant almond blossom and toast nuances. These opulent and enticing flavors accompany a rich mouthfeel. The impeccable harmony among the various parts is testimony to a balanced wine that finishes on a savory and upbeat note.
Professional Ratings
-
James Suckling
A tight and focused white with aromas of minerals, dried apples, lemons and touches of sea salt, lemongrass and light, fresh seaweed. It’s medium-bodied with fresh fruit and a minerally finish.
-
Jeb Dunnuck
The 2022 Ornellaia is a touch more straw/yellow-hued in the glass and is 100% Sauvignon Blanc from Bellaria Vineyard, Made from two or three different plots of the vineyard, it is raised in barriques, with 20% new oak. The nose has more minerality, with aromas of wet stones, delicate flint, riper tropical fresh peaches, delicate, sweet tropical flowers, and a kiss of vanilla. It has lovely extract and a silky, rounded texture on the palate as well as balanced ripeness and a long finish.
-
Decanter
Ornellaia Bianco is today 100% Sauvignon Blanc, following a period a few years ago where it was blended with other varieties. There's a slightly flinty note to the aromas of lychee, green fruits, papaya and peach. In the mouth there's a delicately creamy background overlaid by very zesty citrus, apricot and lychee. The palate is vertical in shape, with mouthwatering acidity and a rich, textural finish with some leesy depth and woody grip.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Made with 100% Sauvignon Blanc, the Ornellaia 2022 Bolgheri Bianco Ornellaia reflects a hotter vintage through a broader, more opulent expression, offering honeyed tones, stone fruit, cantaloupe melon and a distinctly yellow-fruited profile with notable richness and viscosity. Sourced from rocky limestone soils with clay lying deep underground, the wine is released three years after harvest to allow the variety to move beyond its initial phase of youthful fragrance and exuberance, though in this vintage, the overall impression remains dense and somewhat static in my view. The wine has gone from being an IGT Toscana to a Bolgheri Bianco.
-
Wine Spectator
Rich yet intense, this white deftly uses hints of vanilla and buttery new oak to frame its peach, melon and cut grass flavors. Picks up a salty, mineral element as the finish persists. Shows terrific balance and smoky length. Sauvignon Blanc.
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.
Sometimes light and crisp, other times rich and creamy, Bordeaux White Blends typically consist of Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon. Often, a small amount of Muscadelle or Sauvignon Gris is included for added intrigue. Popularized in Bordeaux, the blend is often mimicked throughout the New World. Somm Secret—Sauternes and Barsac are usually reserved for dessert, but they can be served before, during or after a meal. Try these sweet wines as an aperitif with jamón ibérico, oysters with a spicy mignonette or during dinner alongside hearty Alsatian sausage.
An outstanding wine region made famous by Marchese Mario Incisa della Rocchetta, who planted Cabernet Sauvignon vines for his own consumption in 1940s on his San Guido estate, and called the resulting wine, Sassicaia. Today the region’s Tuscan reds are based on Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, which can be made as single varietal wines or blends. The local Sangiovese can make up no more than 50% of the blends. Today Sassicaia has its own DOC designation within the Bogheri DOC appellation.