Tenuta dell'Ornellaia Ornellaia 2004
Category Red Wine
Varietal Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot
Region Italy : Tuscany : Bolgheri
Producer Tenuta dell'Ornellaia
Price : about $200
Tenuta dell'Ornellaia
2004 can be considered as one of the major expressions of Ornellaia and represents an excellent example of a classic vintage in Bolgheri. The ideal conditions during the growing season lead to a perfect combination of ripeness, flavor complexity and finesse. The velvety opulence of the Merlot is balanced out by the racy and elegant tannic structure of the Cabernets, which are further amplified by the small addition of Petit Verdot.
Wine Enthusiast
This is a hopelessly gorgeous wine with so much energy, intensity, density and good cheer. The superb ensemble—Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot—delivers chocolate fudge, ripe cherry, rhubarb, cola, tobacco and cedar wood. It’s tight and supple, with seamless harmony and excellent succulence on the finish. But it’s that incredible intensity that truly sets this wine apart.
Score:
98. —Monica Larner, April 01, 2008.
Wine Spectator
Dark ruby-purple in color, with complex aromas of dark chocolate, cola, vanilla, cedar and currant. Full-bodied yet ultrarefined, with dense, seamless, caressing tannins. Everything is in the right proportion. Superb. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. Best after 2009.
Score:
97. —James Suckling, October 31, 2007.
Wine Advocate
The gorgeous 2004 Ornellaia is a great way to start this tasting. A lively dark ruby, it is a vibrant effort bursting with expressive aromatics and layered, well-delineated fruit, showing much purity on the palate and closing with a long, finessed finish. Readers hoping to catch this wine's full array of nuances will have to wait at least another few years as the wine remains quite primary today. This exquisite effort is not to be missed. A blend of 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Merlot, 12% Cabernet Franc and 3% Petit Verdot. 95/Anticipated maturity: 2011-2019. Tenuta dell'Ornellaia is without question one of Italy's blue-chip properties. The gorgeous, sprawling estate is located in Bolgheri in Tuscany's Maremma. On a recent visit I had the opportunity to taste a number of the estate's wines with General Manager/Agronomist Leonardo Raspini and Oenologist Axel Heinz, including verticals of the estate's top bottlings Ornellaia and Masseto. Ornellaia is a Bordeaux-inspired blend consisting principally of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot. In 2003 a small percentage of Petit Verdot was introduced. The use of several varietals gives the winemaking team the luxury of being able to tailor the exact proportion of the blend to the specific strengths of a given vintage. Because the blend tends to vary from year to year in a vertical tasting Ornellaia shows many different facets of its personality. After harvest the varietals are vinified separately. Fermentation and maceration lasts between 25-30 days after which the wines are moved into French oak barrels where they age for 12 months. The wines are then racked and assembled into the final blend, which spends an additional six months in barrel prior to being bottled. The percentage of new oak has risen from 50%, which was used for vintages 1997 and 1998, to 60% used in 1999, to the 70% the estate has employed since 2000.
Score:
95. —Antonio Galloni, April 2007.
* 2009년 9월 15일, 롯데호텔 바인에서, 주*환 사장님과 그 동호회 분들과 함께..
4병이서 2병은 누가 생각해도 좀 아쉽지?? 결국 분위기를 타고 이 와인도 개봉했다. 나야 어쨌든 당연 반갑지 ㅋㅋ
향 : 아세톤향
맛 : 첫맛에 자르르한 자극이 입안을 희롱한다. 하지만 정돈되어 있어서, 그 맛이 세련되고 깔끔하다.
탄닌도 아주 강하다.
다만 그 외에는 아무리 집중해도 도무지 쓸말이 없다.
총평 : 앞의 마신 와인들이 가격대에 비해 너무 만족스럽지 못해서 실망했던 터라, 이 와인을 안마셨으면 그날은 의미가 없는 날이 될 뻔했다. 첫맛부터 자신의 솔직한 맛을 보여주는 이 와인은 부족하나마 서로의 자랑으로 소담스런 얘기를 나누는 오랜 친구 같았다. 다만 역시 영한 탓일까, 아니면 바로 앞의 무식하게 강렬한 런릭이라는 호주 쉬라를 마셔서일까.. 좀처럼 시음노트에 쓸만한 감각이 느껴지지 않았다. 이 와인이 진짜로 이정도 밖에 안되는 것은 아닐텐데, 마시는 순서의 잘못인것 같다.