Vineyards Magazine

Vintage 2014 underlines the difference between the traditional vineyards of central Tuscany and Ornellaia’s Merlot & Cabernet Sauvignon rich vineyards on the coast.

Coming primarily from the Estate’s younger vineyards and made with the same passion and attention to detail as Ornellaia, Le Serre Nuove dell’Ornellaia is a true “second vin”. A blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc & Petit Verdot, Le Serre Nuove dell’Ornellaia combines generosity and depth of flavour with an engaging and vibrant personality.

2014 will be remembered in Tuscany for the summer that never was and as one of the most unusual. A warm and rainy winter was followed by a mild and dry spring, a distinctively average July and a cold and rainy August. All of this created difficult conditions for the ripening of the grapes. September and October, however, brought perfect conditions, with mostly sunny and dry weather, offering excellent conditions for ripening, particularly for Merlot.

While we had an incredible amount of extra work to do in the vineyard, the combination of the Estate’s varied subsoils, the varietals of Cabernet Sauvignon & Merlot and our own detailed knowledge of the terroir all played distinctively in our favour. Le Serre Nuove dell’Ornellaia underlines the fundamental difference in terroir between the coast and the central Tuscan vineyards.

“A late vintage with a long period of ripening, 2014 presented us with wines that generate a great amount of pleasure. Le Serre Nuove dell’Ornellaia 2014 has a ruby colour of medium intensity. On the nose it develops fresh crisp fruit aromas underpinned by fine notes of spice. The palate is of medium weight with notes of red berry fruit. The tannins are fine, silky and particularly polished. Soft and enveloping yet with a clean lively finish”. Axel Heinz – Estate Director and Winemaker ORNELLAIA

The 2014 harvest will go down in history as one of the latest, starting on 6 September with the Merlot from young vines, and ending on 22 October with the last Cabernet Sauvignons.

The clusters were hand-picked into 15-kg boxes and then selected by hand on a double sorting table, before and after de-stemming, and finally gently crushed. Each variety and each parcel was vinified separately. Alcoholic fermentation took place in stainless steel, at temperatures of between 26° and 30°C for two weeks followed by maceration of around 10-15 days. Malolactic fermentation was started in stainless steel, and completed after transfer to barrels (25% new and 75% a year old). The wine remained in Ornellaia’s temperature-controlled cellar for a further 15 months. It was assembled after the first 12 months and then reintroduced in the barrels for a further 3 months. After bottling, it was aged for an additional six months prior to release.