Vineyards Magazine

“Here at Ornellaia 2017 has been an unusually early year dominated by a long lasting drought period, which has forced us to startharvest two weeks earlier than usual. It is certainly a challenging year with a very small crop and very concentrated fruit. The Merlot have been harvested from last week of August to first week of September. The Cabernets have benefitted from some rain in mid September and could be picked in perfect conditions in the last decade of the month.”

“In the cellar it was crucial to drastically sort out any dehydrated and dried fruit and go through very gentle extraction with moderate maceration times. The quality of the red wines is definitely a nice surprise, they are certainly ripe and concentrated, with intense and dark colour, abundant but ripe and silky tannins and, luckily, healthy acidities to balance out the alcohol levels. The whites are equally beautiful for all varieties, they are concentrated with bright aromatics and excellent acidities.” Axel Heinz, winemaker and Estate Director