2021 Ornellaia and Le Serre Nuove

The 2021 vintage is said to be really something on the Tuscan coast and one of which to take serious note, and the 2021 Ornellaia exemplifies this. As Antonio Galloni writes in his 2024 Tuscan review, it isn’t just due to the vintage conditions, but an evolving approach to winemaking:
 
‘Readers will want to pay special attention to new releases from Tuscany’s 2021 vintage. Favorable growing conditions throughout the year and the gentler winemaking that is increasingly the norm yielded wines that impress with stunning beauty, finesse and exceptional balance. I started tasting the 2021s from barrel in the summer of 2022. Even then, the potential of the vintage was evident. The bottled wines confirm my early impressions. Many estates produced some of their best wines ever.’

I have only been able to verify the results by tasting more humble wines to date (as ever I will seek to rectify this), but using the second wine of Ornellaia, namely Le Serre Nuove, as a case in point, the vintage is seriously impressive. Normally I regard this wine as a good glass, well-made, supple, mid-weight and destined to be consumed on the young side, but all in all, fairly uncomplicated. The 2021 is something else – tasting from a sample sent to our offices, I was surprised by the richness on show as well as the poise, balance and persistence.  I may not be able to confirm whether there has been a better Ornellaia than the 2021, but I would be surprised if there was a vintage of Le Serre Nuove that comes close to this level of quality.
 
Of the 2021 harvest, Galloni comments that the ‘harvest started early, in the last days of August, and then continued for several weeks. It’s a vintage with very high extract, more than even years like 2006, and yet the wine feels incredibly finessed, the result of gentler extraction overall and a lighter hand with oak. The last few years have seen a clear move towards complementing and balancing the natural opulence of Bolgheri rather than emphasizing it – as was sometimes the case in the past – and it shows.’  I think this is a really key point. Winemaking in Tuscany often veered towards the need to make a statement piece, despite the wines being naturally exuberant. As we are noticing the world over, today there is a desire to move towards more refinement and to ease back on the extraction, to make wines that show finer balance. This is in part due to a change in style demanded by consumers, but also in reaction to the changes in climate that we have witnessed. Today in Bordeaux, the watchword is infusion, rather than extraction – the idea being that the skins are richer than they used to be in both tannin and fruit compounds and therefore there is little need to agitate them in order to extract. With this in mind, I am interested to taste the Ornellaia 2021 as my criticism of some earlier vintages was the slightly flashy opulence that they exhibited. A more poised, cerebral Ornellaia sounds compelling to me.
 
And, when you read Antonio Galloni’s tasting notes below, you certainly won’t doubt his enthusiasm for this vintage.