Last December I had a chance to taste a vertical of 14 of the most notable vintages of Ornellaia since its first vintage in 1985 as Lodovico Antinori’s attempt to rival the wine achievements of his brother Piero Antinori with Solaia and cousin Nicolo Incisa della Rochetta at Sassicaia just up the road. Inspired by Sassicaia, he first undertook experiments in the region with Cabernet and Merlot in cahoots with the famous California oenologist André Tchelistcheff in 1981.
I visited there once, in the late 1980s I think, and remember being impressed by the spanking new oak fermenters that had...