March 16, 2024 - Opaque purple with some dried herbs and dark berries on the nose. Concentrated black fruit led to a spicy, acidic finish. Wish we had decanted this one a bit more, as the fruit and tannins began to mellow after a couple of hours. Was pleasing to much of the crowd, but I was left expecting a little more from this, more bitter than I generally prefer. Eucalyptus, sandalwood, anise, licorice, red currants and green pepper on the palate. Would love to have a comparison tasting of a different vintage.
December 13, 2023 - Salon Ficofi Paris walkabout tasting and dinner, no detailed tasting notes. From DMG. Of all the aia Super Tuscans, I liked this the best. It had good balance, was not too massive with lovely tertiary notes.
December 6, 2023 - Dunkelrot, fast schwarze Farbe. Nase anfangs noch unaufgeregt: etwas Leder und Gewürze, Hauch
Marmelade. Am Gaumen platzt dann die Bombe: Tabak, Pflaume, erdige Nuancen und ein Finish ohne Ende. Zweifelsfrei ein großer Wein, der sich überraschend frisch gehalten hat. Sicherlich noch einige gute Jahre vor sich. Nach einer Stunde zeigte sich die Flasche viel zugänglicher. Klare Empfehlung vorher zu dekantieren. Für mich ist der 08er Ornellaia direkt in die Top 3 der Rotweine eingestiegen.
November 27, 2023 - A technically well-made wine but one-dimensional and bitter. Too young by quite a few years.
August 1, 2023 - Ornellaia Dinner (Stefani Prime - Lincolnwood IL): Double blind in what turned out to be an Ornellaia vertical, which I correctly identified as an Italian Bordeaux blend. Rich and very concentrated from start-to-finish with lots of currant and cassis, supplemented with wonderful spice. Very good length. Upside from here.
April 13, 2023 - Opened for two hours, put the cork back in and took to one of our nearby Italian BYOB's where they decanted it for us and we slowly consumed over the next two hours. Dark fruit on the nose. The palate was blackberry, tobacco, dried herbs and a hint of white toast. The finish was long and smooth.
April 9, 2023 - Beautifully balanced, at peak I would say. Need decanting about an hour.
March 5, 2023 - Very open fleshy and ripe. Felt too ripe initially. Had to cool it down to 18degrees, and some of the heat blew off after an hour then it became more sedate and balanced and wonderful.
February 4, 2023 - Fabulous.
Decanted for 90 minutes.
Very well balanced.
Light sediment.
Still has lots of life ahead of it after almost 15 years of age.
January 2, 2023 - Fantastic Italian red blend! Superb to drink after opening a couple of hours before drinking. One of the best red wine drank, tasting some oak, blackberries and little vanilla and some tobacco.