2020 Ornellaia Bolgheri Superiore Tuscany 750 ml

If there’s an Italian wine that collectors revere like First Growth Bordeaux and cult California Cabernet, it’s Ornellaia. The icon stands shoulder to shoulder with its $500–$800+ Medoc counterparts—and, as Antonio Galloni of Vinous said, has “never failed to literally send shivers down my spine.”

The 2020 edition, the product of a warm vintage, is one of the most seductive ever produced. Wine Advocate called it a “broad and generous expression…that speaks to the very best of Italian winemaking.” Ornellaia estate director Axel Heinz, in tribute to the wine’s impeccable balance, named it “La Proporzione.”

Ornellaia’s superb longevity was palpable when we visited the estate a few summers ago, and the property drips with pedigree. The original Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Cabernet Franc vines were planted by legendary enologist André Tchelistcheff, who told founder Lodovico Antinori that the land 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—a key to keeping the wine equal parts “sumptuous and racy,” as Galloni once described it.

Heinz is “one of the world’s most in-demand winemakers,” according to Galloni, and for the 2020 Ornellaia, Heinz’s team, led by winemaker Olga Fusari, handpicked the grapes and sorted them 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, as Advocate put it, is a “generous and opulent” Ornellaia that’s showing beautifully now and promises a long evolution in the cellar.