Ornellaia 2005 to be released on May 1 was in Delhi yesterday for its 20-year anniversary celebration run, and was unveiled and uncorked at Hotel Shangri-la, with a promise to impress connoisseurs in future years, with its 10-year older sibling winning cork down in, maturity, and rounded flavours reports Subhash Arora.

Sassicaia, Solaia, Ornellaia, Gaja… are a few of my favourite Tuscan wines which bring music to the ears and pleasure to the palate. Of course, the last one is not a wine but the legendry producer from Barbaresco, who makes Super Tuscans as well, in the relatively recent Bolgheri, South west of Tuscany in the Maremma coastal area. Solaia is crafted in the traditional Chianti Classico region.

Ornellaia has an ornamental ring to it. It is always a treat to taste this delicious Super Tuscan from the Frescobaldi family and so I could not resist the temptation of being one of the first to taste the recently released-for-tasting 2005 vintage at Shangri-la, the latest Delhi hotel vying to be a wine destination with many novel policies on the anvil.

Ornellaia is an Italian equivalent of Bordeaux; the 2005 has 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 22% Merlot, 14% Cabernet Franc and the recently added 4% Petit Verdot. It is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year and one of the first to join in was a group of journalists, wine lovers and hotel industry people who had collected to taste the Italian version of the equivalent classified growth from Medoc.

But before the unveiling of this charmer, there was Le Serre Nuove, the second wine of this Frescobaldi-owned estate. Made from younger vineyards (the old world charm also lies in their belief that vines need to age before they start yielding great fruit), the grapes are picked separately from each parcel and after individual fermentation and barrel aging for 12 months, does the winemaker decide whether the wine is good enough to be designated as the King Ornellaia, in which case it enjoys 6 more months in the barrel and 12 months in the bottle at the cellar, before it can be uncorked.

Not long ago, Robert Mondavi had picked up share holding in the prestigious Tenute dell'Ornellaia, the winery founded by Lodovico Antinori. But it is now back with the Tuscan family of Frescobaldi as their exclusive private reserve.

Giovanni Mazzoni, the export manager for 52 countries in West Asia-Pacific, Middle-East was in Delhi to unveil the flagship wine of the Frescobaldi family and the wine certainly did not disappoint. Though a bit young and tight as expected, the tannins are still fairly strong and powerful and need some taming down but the complexity of fruit and minerality were abundant.

Explaining to delWine, Mazzoni said that though Ornellaia was born in 1984 (says the website), it was not sold in the market and they figure 1985 was the first year and hence the 20th celebrations for 2005, with special gold inscribed bottle.

The best of the evening belonged to the 1995 though, which was simply superb- perfectly balanced tannins and fruit with a complex and long after finish- the flavour is still lingering in mouth (the vintage can make so much of difference-and in case of fine wines the maturity comes with spending years in the barrel or even the bottle and also 1995 was an excellent vintage.)

Ornellaia is yet another beauty in Brindco's Harem! And if we were ever to double-date I would let Aman Dhall take the 2005 and I would go for the older, and more mature and well-balanced 1995 stunner!

Kudos to Shangri-la for its effort to get the Champagne export into India keep pace with the rest of the country in wine consumption by starting the evening with uncorking of the famous sparkler.

Subhash Arora
March 10, 2008

In case Hindi is not your mother tongue or father tongue- the heading of this article simply describes the event- Ornellaia came to Delhi… and pleased hearts whole-heartedly