2017 Ornellaia Bolgheri Superiore 750 ml

Every famous wine country has its icon bottlings, and few Italian reds have captured as many hearts as Ornellaia. One of the world’s most accomplished wines of the last 35+ years, the legendary Super Tuscan producer is often referred to as “Italy’s First Growth,” a nod to Ornellaia’s ability to stand alongside its $500-$800+ counterparts in Bordeaux. 

The Wine Advocate classifies Ornellaia as “monumental,” while Vinous founder Antonio Galloni wrote that the estate’s wines “have never failed to literally send shivers down my spine,” before calling the 2017, “In a word: superb!” For one of Italy’s most definitive wines, this Ornellaia is a must-have for collectors.

The 2017 is a balanced and opulent Bordeaux blend consisting primarily of Cabernet Sauvignon, with a healthy dose of Merlot, and a sprinkling of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. Cassis, blackberry, and wild plum aromas fill the room as soon as the cork pops, while baking spice, vanilla, and clove emerge with a few swirls of the glass. Rich and powerful yet energetic and lifted on the palate, black fruit, mocha, star anise, tobacco, and wild herbs rest comfortably in the wine’s firm tannic grip.

With an hour’s decant, intricate layers of loam, pencil lead, cardamom, and exotic spices begin to weave through the fruit character as the wine breathes, hinting at its decades of cellar potential. Very complex, seemingly endless, and utterly brilliant, this is drinking beautifully now with its sensuous texture, and will only improve with two-plus decades of age. 

We were reminded of Ornellaia’s longevity when we visited the estate last summer. Driving south of the famed cypress-lined avenue of Bolgheri, the Ornellaia estate visibly drips with pedigree. The original Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Cabernet Franc vines here were planted by the legendary enologist André Tchelistcheff, who told founder Lodovico Antinori that the property was a viticultural “El Dorado.” 

Barely three miles from the glimmering Tuscan coast, we see what he meant. The maritime breeze was a welcome respite from Italy’s sultry summer heat—proving key to keeping the wine equal parts “sumptuous and racy,” as Galloni described it in 2017—while sedimentary deposits from the sea combine with alluvial clay and volcanic schist soils to influence its savory mineral character.

Back inside the cool, stone cellar, we were treated to a mini vertical of 1997 and 2007 vintage pours alongside our 2017 sample. The 1997 was still lively and complex, with marvelous dried red fruit, tobacco, leather spice, graphite, and underbrush, positively singing in its middle-age. We marveled how, alongside similar vintages of Left Bank Bordeaux, all three Ornellaias would hold their own and then some.  

Some of the finest Bordeaux blends in the world today are in fact coming out of Tuscany’s coastal Maremma. Ornellaia remains at the top of its game, right up there with its rival, Sassicaia—they’re both absolute beauties that offer a real challenge to some of the most established Grand Cru Classé Bordeaux properties in quality, cellar-potential, and price. 

Today, the wines are tended by Axel Heinz, “one of the world’s most in-demand winemakers” according to Galloni. For the 2017 Ornellaia, Heinz told us he selected fruit from the estate’s 20- to 30-year-old vines, which are planted at an unusually high density, forcing them to compete with one another for water and nutrients and increasing grape quality and concentration.

“A superb wine” through and through, this Super Tuscan lives up to the title, well-integrated and impressively silky at its young age, with powerful Bordeaux-like structure and gorgeous fruit purity on the mid-palate. At the best price in the nation, the only thing left for Wine Access collectors to decide is how many bottles of this 2017 Ornellaia to enjoy now, and how many to stash away to open over the next few decades.