Le Serre Nuove dell’Ornellaia 2021, 6 Bottle Case

This is a very special price for six bottles of a very special wine, from a very special place and a very special vintage.

A broad, layered and dense nose shows flavours of back cherries, blackberry and bramble fruit with delicious spice notes of pink peppercorns, cedar and Mediterranean shrub. The palate has wonderful balance of ripe fruit, richness and tannic support that have made this wine a joy to drink, even from the barrel, and will allow it to age for over a decade. There is never any sense of overpowering, the acidity allowing for balance and length, which complete a simply brilliant piece of winemaking.

Made from a blend of the typical Bordeaux grape varieties, 50% Merlot, 28% Cabernet Sauvignon, 11% Cabernet Franc, 11% Petit Verdot, this is a wine that shows reward from choosing the right location as well as nurturing the best wines in the cellar to represent a hugely impressive range of flavours and texture in each bottle. The 2021 harvest was exceptionally blessed – spring rainfall was followed by an almost total absence of rain until the end of September (can you imagine that?!), but on account of the deep, Medoc-like soils, the vines suffered not hydric stress and, as the winery puts it so poetically, allowed for an “à la carte” harvest.

The grapes are then fermented by lot and variety in steel and concrete vats before ageing in barriques, 25% of which are new, 75% first year from Ornellaia, for a total of 12 months. After this time the barrels are blended to make the final wine, which is then returned to barriques for a further 3 months of ageing. It’s then bottled and left to rest for another 6 months before it is released to market.

Really, 2021 has been hailed across Tuscany as one of the greatest vintages in living memory.

From the near-sacred land that is the Ornellaia estate, this wine is widely regarded as Italy’s first (and best) “Second Wine”. Following in the traditions of the best Châteaux of Bordeaux, this wine made in identical fashion to its bigger brother, Ornellaia. from the same grapes, using the same quality of barrel and undergoing the same winemaking process. The difference? Well, in the beginning, all of this wine became Ornellaia, only that at one point the wine making team realised that certain maturing barrels were performing better than others and that these barrels formed the backbone of the final wine. Therefore they decided that it should only be the very, very best of the barrels that went to form Ornellaia. No issue! However, they now had lots of left-over barrels that were full of wonderful almost-top-top quality wine: what to do? Copy what they have done in Bordeaux, and to superb acclaim. After all, the concept of Ornellaia itself was taken from Bordeaux, so why not carry on copying?! The success of Le Serre Nuove (or LSN as they like to call it…) has been huge: they release it as a stand-alone wine; the “Second Wine” concept has been copied by all of the other major Bolgheri estates; LSN is now traded on the global fine wine markets.

This is wonderful, delicious and top-quality fine wine, and we are very glad to be able to offer it.

James Suckling, 94 Points

“A firm and linear red with currant, berry, chocolate and cedar character. It’s medium- to full-bodied. Fine tannins that run the length of the wine. It’s tight and focused. Energetic and bright. 50% Merlot and 28% Cabernet Sauvignon and the rest split equally between Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc.”

Robert Parker, 93 Points