2022 Le Volte dell'Ornellaia, Tuscany, Italy

Nestled in the heart of Tuscany’s coastal gem, Bolgheri, Tenuta dell’Ornellaia is a beacon of excellence in modern Italian winemaking. This world-renowned estate marries timeless beauty with uncompromising quality, crafting wines that capture the spirit of their extraordinary surroundings.

Approached by a cypress-lined avenue rising gently from the ancient Roman Via Aurelia, the estate lies just beyond the medieval hamlet of Bolgheri. From the village walls, the landscape opens toward the shimmering Tyrrhenian Sea—on clear days, even the Tuscan Archipelago and Corsica islands grace the horizon. The estate’s privileged location, with its mild maritime climate and abundant Mediterranean vegetation, leaves an indelible mark on the wines' character.

Every aspect of production is driven by a deep respect for this unique terroir: low yields to ensure exceptional quality, meticulous hand-harvesting, micro-vinification in small lots, and extended ageing. Tenuta dell’Ornellaia’s flagship wine, Ornellaia, is a masterful Cabernet Sauvignon–Merlot blend that embodies depth, complexity, and finesse. Its sibling, Masseto, is crafted exclusively from Merlot—a rich, polished expression of pure elegance that has become a modern icon among the world’s finest wines.

The most famous red wine grape in the world and one of the most widely planted.
It is adaptable to a wide range of soils, although it performs particularly well on well-drained, low-fertile soils. It has small, dusty, black-blue berries with thick skins that produce deeply coloured, full-bodied wines with notable tannins. Its spiritual home is the Médoc and Graves regions of Bordeaux where it thrives on the well-drained gravel-rich soils producing tannic wines with piercing blackcurrant fruits that develop complex cedarwood and cigar box nuances when fully mature.

The grape is widely planted in California where Cabernet Sauvignon based wines are distinguished by their rich mixture of cassis, mint, eucalyptus and vanilla oak. It is planted across Australia and with particular success in Coonawarra where it is suited to the famed Terra Rossa soil. In Italy barrique aged Cabernet Sauvignon is a key component in Super Tuscans such as Tignanello and Sassicaia, either on its own or as part of a blend with Sangiovese.