2019 Ornus dell’Ornellaia
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Tasting notes
The 2019 Ornus dell’Ornellaia, 100% Petit Manseng, is a gorgeous sweet wine. Candied apricot, passionfruit, orange jam, honey, spice and ginger lend notable complexity throughout. The 2019 is quite deep and intense, but with no excess weight. This is an especially fine edition. (Originally Published in March 2022)
Critic scores
James Suckling
Jeb Dunnuck
More reviews and scores
A dessert wine built on 100% Petit Manseng, the 2019 Ornus Dell'Ornellaia is a ripe, exotic effort offering notes of honeyed mango, candied orange, caramelized grapefruit, and brioche aromas and flavors. More medium to full-bodied on the palate, it's light on its feet and graceful, with notable freshness and purity. It's going to be incredibly versatile as a dessert wine and, I suspect, age for decades, although there's no need to delay gratification either.
Packaged in its distinctive amphorae-shaped 375-milliliter bottle, the Ornellaia 2019 Ornus dell'Ornellaia (made with late-harvest Petit Manseng) shows a shiny golden color with polished copper highlights. The wine is redolent of sweet honey, dried apricot, jasmine and a touch of lemon blossom or bergamot. The mouthfeel is glycerine-rich and creamy, with a pretty heaviness that is packed with sweetness, fruit and the necessary acidity to invite sip after sip. This dessert wine is a lot of fun.
A gorgeous sweet wine that brings a smile to your face. Dried apricots and flowers with peach pie on the nose. Full-bodied with medium sweetness and phenolic tension that gives you a firm and persistent mouth-feel. It tightens on the finish. Medium-sweet finish. Lovely acidity. Drink now.
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.