🍷 Ornellaia 2021

Ornellaia 2021 is a red DOC Bolgheri Superiore wine from the 2021 harvest by Ornellaia of Bolgheri.

According to the house, the grape varieties are Cabernet Sauvignon (53 %), Merlot (25 %), Cabernet Franc (15 %) and Petit Verdot (7 %); the wine was aged for about 18 months in barriques; 70 % of the barrels were new; after bottling the wine rested a further 12 months before release; the estate named this vintage «La Generosità».

Ornellaia is a wine estate at Bolgheri on the Tuscan coast, founded in 1981; according to its technical sheets, its grand vin Ornellaia is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot, first made in 1985.

Bolgheri is a controlled designation of origin (DOC; in EU terms a PDO) on the Tuscan coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea: the grapes must be grown within the municipality of Castagneto Carducci in the province of Livorno, in the Bolgheri area, excluding the land west of the old route of the Aurelia highway. It covers white, Vermentino, Sauvignon, rosé, red and Rosso Superiore wines; the varieties are Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Sangiovese, Syrah, Sauvignon, Vermentino and Viognier. Today’s winemaking took shape in the 1980s, based on the French varieties that Marquis Mario Incisa della Rocchetta brought to the area in 1944; the soils are highly varied, with 27 soil types. For the Rosso Superiore the yield is limited to 8,000 kg of grapes and 56 hl of wine per hectare (63 hl for the basic Rosso), and the total alcoholic strength must be at least 12.5 %.

Under the DOC Bolgheri rules, the Superiore type is aged for set periods in barrels and in bottle before release. It may be bottled only within the municipality of Castagneto Carducci (producers who traditionally bottled elsewhere can obtain individual permits), in dark Bordeaux-type bottles closed with cork stoppers, and sold in containers from 0.375 to 12 litres. The harvest year on the label is compulsory, and the 2022 amendment made the word «Toscana» compulsory below the name Bolgheri, in letters no more than half as large. Vines are trained as spurred cordon or guyot, and only emergency irrigation is allowed. The appellation is a rule of origin and production, not a verdict on taste.

Under EU rules, a wine label must show the designation of origin, the actual alcoholic strength, allergens such as sulphites, and the name of the bottler. A harvest year on the label means the wine is made from grapes of that year.

Why it matters to you. The appellation on the label tells you where the grapes come from and under which rules the wine was made; in Bolgheri the blend and the harvest dates change every year, so different years of the same estate are different wines. The WHO reminds: there is no safe level of alcohol. The year on the label is the harvest year.