Ornellaia 1997

The desire to nurture the Estate’s exceptional qualities has shaped Ornellaia’s philosophy since the beginning. Ornellaia is a cuvée of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc & Petit Verdot and the faithful expression of unique terroir developed in harmony with nature.

Vintage 1997

The 1997 growing season:

The start of Spring saw above average temperatures which resulted in an early budding of the vines. The vegetative cycle slowed down somewhat following an unexpected frost in mid April and subsequent rainful until the end of the month. From May onwards, the weather became very warm and dry and the Summer months were particularly hot.  The grapes ripened earlier than usual and harvesting was carried out under ideal conditions during the first part of September. The vintage was exceptional in terms of quality (with grapes that had matured perfectly with good concentration and well matured tannins), while quantities were somewhat lower than average due to the small dimensions of the grapes  resulting from the dry summer conditions.

Vinification and Ageing

On harvesting, the grapes were destemmed and crushed before being introduced partially in wooden fermentors of medium capacity, and partially in stainless steel tanks where alcoholic fermentation took place at a temperature not exceeding 30°C. Maceration continued for a period of 20-25 days after which the wine was introduced into new french oak barriques (50%) and second passage barriques (50%) where it completed its malolactic fermentation. Each grape variety and each vineyard ‘lot’ was aged separately. The wine remained in barriques in the temperature controlled cellars for a period of 18 months after which time the wine was then blended and bottled. A further refinement period of 12 months in the bottle followed, prior to release. Ornellaia decided to carried out an even more rigorous selection of the 1997 vintage (in what was already a truly great vintage in terms of quality!). This resulted in a production of about 20% less than the previous vintage.

Ratings:

Wine Advocate 93

Wine Spectator 96

James Suckling 97

Antonio Galloni 95

Falstaff 94

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