2022 Ornellaia Bianco
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Tasting notes
Made with 100% Sauvignon Blanc, the Ornellaia 2022 Bolgheri Bianco Ornellaia reflects a hotter vintage through a broader, more opulent expression, offering honeyed tones, stone fruit, cantaloupe melon and a distinctly yellow-fruited profile with notable richness and viscosity. Sourced from rocky limestone soils with clay lying deep underground, the wine is released three years after harvest to allow the variety to move beyond its initial phase of youthful fragrance and exuberance, though in this vintage, the overall impression remains dense and somewhat static in my view. The wine has gone from being an IGT Toscana to a Bolgheri Bianco.
Critic scores
Average Score
Jancis Robinson MW
James Suckling
More reviews and scores
Of all the wines we tasted this week, it might have been the Ornellaia Bianco that our guests were most excited about - it is made in such tiny quantities, and has such an outsized reputation for quality. It totally lived up to expectations, spellbinding, crisp but powerful, layered, supple, pink grapefruit, citrus, sage, gunsmoke, white peach - particularly impressive in what was a hot and dry vintage. 25% new oak for fermentation at low temperature that didn't go over 22C, ageing in barrels of 225, 320 and 600l for 10 months, no malo. Six months in bottle before release. Marco Balsimelli director, Denise Cosentino winemaker.
A tight and focused white with aromas of minerals, dried apples, lemons and touches of sea salt, lemongrass and light, fresh seaweed. It’s medium-bodied with fresh fruit and a minerally finish. Drink or hold.
The 2022 Ornellaia is a touch more straw/yellow-hued in the glass and is 100% Sauvignon Blanc from Bellaria Vineyard, Made from two or three different plots of the vineyard, it is raised in barriques, with 20% new oak. The nose has more minerality, with aromas of wet stones, delicate flint, riper tropical fresh peaches, delicate, sweet tropical flowers, and a kiss of vanilla. It has lovely extract and a silky, rounded texture on the palate as well as balanced ripeness and a long finish. It’s going to improve over the next 8-10 years.
About the producer
Based in the foothills of Bolgheri, Ornellaia is one of the original Super Tuscans, making some of Italy’s finest Cabernet blends. Created by Lodovico Antinori, today the estate is owned by the Frescobaldi family, which also owns sibling property Masseto.