Tenuta dell'Ornellaia Ornellaia 2013 (RP96)

Country:             Italy
Region:               Tuscany Rating:                RP96, JS98, D100
Grape Variety:  Bordeaux Blend Red
Type of Wine:   Red Wine
Bottle Size:        750ml

By Robert Parker's Wine Advocate 96
The 2013 Bolgheri Superiore Ornellaia is an integrated and seamless blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Petit Verdot. Alex Heinz tells me that 2013 was a difficult vintage especially towards the early part of the growing season. It balanced out during the summer and allowed for steady ripening of fruit before the harvest. But 2013 was not as hot as 2011 and 2012 overall, and this edition of Ornellaia is beautifully tonic and shapely as a result. The bouquet is very developed in terms of aromas this year with beautiful notes of dark fruit, tobacco and spice. Those perfumes are just gorgeous. The mouthfeel is similarly intense with tannins that are still young, but are already silky and linear in nature. This vintage promises a long aging future. (ML)

James Suckling 98
Amazing graphite and violet aromas with dark fruits. Medium to full body, ultra-velvety tannins and a long and beautiful finish. Formed and tight. I love the fresh ginger underneath it all. This has a cool profile to the wine. So approachable yet this has wonderful length.

Decanter 100
Ornellaia 2013 issues from a very 'Bolgherian' vintage. Tempering sea breezes aided long hang times, vital given the sluggish budburst. The reduced crop was a blessing, as remaining grapes could eek out those marginal gains in flavor and aroma expression, and above all elegance. A beautifully compact Ornellaia with a very clear, moreish fruit expression above a nuanced - if yet to be fully pliant - tannic frame. That resolving inner tension and crisp insistence makes this lightly saline red as bracing and fresh as if it were bottled yesterday. (MW)