2016 Ornellaia Bolgheri DOC Superiore 750 ml

If Ornellaia weren’t already a legend, the 2016 vintage would make it one. It’s simply one of the most regal, and—we don’t say this lightly—seductive wines we’ve tasted in recent memory. Hailing from one of the top Tuscan vintages in the last decade, this all-time classic has Napa Valley ripeness, the bright acidity of Bordeaux, and silky, super-fine-grained tannins that just exude elegance. 

It earned a 98-point score from Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate, which makes it the best Ornellaia ever, bar none. Their laudatory review absolutely gushed about the wine’s “monumental depth with profound layers of black fruit, coffee, licorice, and baking chocolate.”

This no way to overstate it. Want to taste all-time Super Tuscan glory? We agree with the  Advocate: “Collectors will want to put it straight into their cellars for safekeeping.” 

Our summer trip to Tuscany took us to the Ornellaia estate (well, after navigating there with lots of luck and non-existent GPS). Once we made it, we took in the peerless estate: the sculpture-covered lawn, the manicured bushes, and the ornate interior. We had a chef-prepared lunch with Estate Director Axel Heinz. As you’d expect from an estate like Ornellaia, it was all fantastic.

We happened to hit the estate during bottling, and as we walked into our appointment, glimpsed a normally unseen part of the process: dozens of workers, leaning over individual bottles of Ornellaia, like jewelers inspecting diamonds. They were examining every last one for creased labels, loose corners, and crooked foil caps—anything that might indicate that the wine within is anything less than flawless.

That is the kind of dedication that goes into Ornellaia, a pioneering estate that—along with Sassicaia, Tignanello, and Solaia—reigns supreme among the heavyweight Super Tuscans, and helped make that category as sought-after as vintage bottles of Lafite-Rothschild and Latour.  

The key lies in Ornellaia’s unique terroir and climate, which is ideal for cultivating Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and Petit Verdot. In breathtakingly beautiful Bolgheri, Heinz and his vines enjoy a perfect hybrid of maritime and Mediterranean conditions. Cool offshore breezes from the Tyrrhenian Sea sweep across Ornellaia’s rocky foothills, counterbalancing the hot Tuscan sun and creating a priceless microclimate. Year-round, roughly 80 workers tend with remarkable precision to the vines spidering through high-elevation plots rich in well-draining marine soils.

The 2016 vintage was an all-time great in Bolgheri—topped only twice in history—and the wine measures up. It’s quite simply one of the finest wines we’ve tasted from this class of Super Tuscans, and we wish we had more to go around. To those who take our small allocation home, cheers!