2018 Ornellaia Bolgheri Superiore Tuscany 750 ml

Few Italian reds have captured hearts like Ornellaia. One of the world’s most accomplished wines of the last 35+ years, the legendary Super Tuscan 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.” The wine is a must-have for collectors, year in and year out—and the 97-point 2018 carries a distinction that no bottle can ever claim again. 

Always a Bordeaux-inspired blend, 2018 is the first vintage in which Merlot takes the lead, contributing 51% of the final assemblage (with 40% Cabernet Sauvignon and the rest Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot). It’s a change that we take to symbolize Ornellaia’s commitment to making the most exquisite wine they can, regardless of precedent, and it becomes extra intriguing when you consider the Merlot savoir-faire at play: Ornellaia Director Axel Heinz, with whom we chatted last week, is also the man behind Ornellaia’s sister-wine Masseto, without a doubt the most sought-after varietal Merlot in the world.

The 2018 is awash in the intoxicating aromas that mark a young Ornellaia. With a little air it opens to reveal fantastic aromas of black cherry, cassis, wild plums, mocha, toast, star anise, wild sage, and tilled earth. The palate is beautifully elegant and refined, with black and blue fruits, wild herbs, toasty spice notes, and a hint of licorice all riding on velvety soft tannins. With all the makings of a great and long-lived bottle, expect it to evolve for a couple of decades. 

Ornellaia’s superb longevity was palpable when we visited the estate two summers ago. Driving south of the famed cypress-lined avenue of Bolgheri, the Ornellaia estate drips with pedigree. The original Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Cabernet Franc vines 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 could see what he meant. The maritime breeze is a welcome respite from Italy’s sultry summer heat—proving key to keeping the wine equal parts “sumptuous and racy,” as Galloni once described it—while sedimentary deposits from the sea combine with alluvial clay and volcanic schist soils to impart savory mineral character into the wine.

Back inside the cool, stone cellar, we were treated to a mini vertical of 1997 and 2007 vintage pours alongside the current vintage. The 1997 was still lively and complex in its middle-age, singing with marvelous dried red fruit, tobacco, leather spice, graphite, and underbrush. We marveled how, alongside similar vintages of 97-point 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 the Maremma on the Tuscan coast. 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. 

Heinz is “one of the world’s most in-demand winemakers” according to Galloni, and for the 2018 Ornellaia, he and his team hand-picked the grapes into small 15-kilo crates before sorting the grapes 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 is an Ornellaia of “terrific persistence and impeccable balance.” It’s a bottle that is showing very youthful now and promises a long and elegant evolution in the cellar. This is a wine to enjoy over the years and cherish alongside the absolute best that the world has to offer.