Tchelistcheff became Ornellaia’s first wine consultant and in 1991, when he retired, Pomerol’s Michel Rolland took over and continues in that role today. There have been three winemakers over the years: first was Tibor Gál; when he returned to his native Hungary, his replacement was Thomas Duroux, who went on to become the winemaker at Château Palmer. Axel Heinz, who had trained and worked in Bordeaux, took over the role in 2005 and this year completed his 18^th vintage.

Between 1999 and 2005 a series of ownership changes took place, kickstarted by Antinori going into partnership with Robert Mondavi. By 2002, Antinori was no longer involved, and Mondavi entered into a partnership with the Frescobaldi family; they, in turn, gained full control of the company in 2005.

Ornellaia is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot with smaller amounts of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. In 1987, the winemaking team found that a little patch of Merlot grown on some special blue clay soil had turned out particularly well. This wine was released in 1987 as Masseto and quickly became one of Italy’s most famous and expensive wines (the current release price is around €1,000 a bottle). Typical annual production of Masseto is 30,000 bottles and of Ornellaia 140,000 bottles.

Ornellaia also produce a second wine, Le Serre Nuove Dell’Ornellaia, made from younger vines with a greater percentage of Merlot in the blend, and another IGT red blend called Le Volte dell’Ornellaia. There are also three white wines: Ornellaia Bianco, a blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Viognier; Poggio alle Gazze dell’Ornellaia, a blend of Sauvignon Blanc, Vermentino, Viognier and Verdicchio; Ornus dell’Ornellaia, a sweet wine made from Petit Manseng.

The style of the Ornellaia red wines is generally rich and lavish in texture, with high alcohol – typically around 14.5% to 15% – but recently the team has been pursuing slightly less powerful wines with even more finesse. To that end Heinz is considering reducing the percentage of Petit Verdot which he feels can be a little ‘rustic’ even when fully ripe, and increasing the amount of Cabernet Franc – a great variety in this environment. The new vineyards planted in 2010 have now come of age and Heinz says they are easier to manage. The team is well established and have been able to handle the wildly inconsistent vintages of the last few years. There has also been ‘a shift away from invasive winemaking; they used do some small pump-overs after alcoholic fermentation but now they do very little. Tasting 12 vintages of Ornellaia from 1988 to 2019, I was delighted to find that recent vintages are getting better and better.