Ornus dell'Ornellaia
⏳ Drinking Window
Typically best enjoyed 5 to 15 years from the vintage release, though exceptional vintages can cellar beautifully for decades.
🍽️ Food & Wine Pairings
Blue cheeses such as Gorgonzola, fruit-based tarts and pastries, or rich foie gras.
✨ Technical Specifications
Ornus dell'Ornellaia is a rare, late-harvest sweet wine that showcases a different facet of the legendary Bolgheri estate. Inspired by the 'Fraxinus ornus'—the Latin name for the Manna Ash tree native to the Tuscan hills—this liquid gold is crafted entirely from Petit Manseng. The grapes are meticulously left to wither on the vine under the warm Tuscan sun, concentrated by gentle coastal breezes. Fermented and aged in French oak barriques, it balances luscious sweetness with a vibrant, mineral-driven acidity characteristic of the estate's maritime terroir, offering a deeply complex sensory journey.
🍾 About the Producer
Established in 1981 by Marchese Lodovico Antinori and guided today under the stewardship of the Frescobaldi family with Technical Director Marco Balsimelli, Ornellaia stands as a pillar of coastal Tuscan viticulture. Situated near Bolgheri along the Tyrrhenian seaboard, the estate commands around 100 hectares of meticulously mapped vineyards. Soils reflect a mosaic of marine gravel, clay, loam, and limestone, nourished by generous maritime sunlight and tempered by cooling coastal breezes sweeping down from the Colline Metallifere. Viticulture adheres to rigorous sustainable standards, certified through Equalitas, championing parcel-level diversity and biodiversity. Ornellaia's winemaking philosophy centers on precise vinification of individual micro-plots in stainless steel and concrete before barrel maturation in fine-grained French oak. The estate's namesake grand vin, Bolgheri DOC Superiore Ornellaia, blends Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and Petit Verdot with structural nobility and opulence, alongside benchmark bottlings such as Le Serre Nuove dell'Ornellaia, Poggio alle Gazze, and the legendary single-vineyard Merlot, Masseto.