First appearance for the new Le Serre Nuove dell’ Ornellaia 2008

The Le Serre Nuove dell’ Ornellaia, which celebrated its tenth anniversary last year (the first vintage was produced in 1997), is always a few months ahead of its big brother Ornellaia. Since his birth, it is the one that presents itself first on the market. Thus, it acts as a harbinger of the Ornellaia - whose 2008 vintage will not be presented to the public until April 2011 - and announces its characteristics silently year after year.

The Le Serre Nuove dell’ Ornellaia is predominantly grown in the younger vineyards of the Tenuta, in vineyards, which tend towards the sea and which are maintained with professionalism and much passion by the technical team of the estate. The grapes picked by hand, which is strictly performed, and after doing so, the berries are individually assessed and selected by the so-called "nurses of wine". Only then the grapes are brought to the cellar to be vinified, where the agronomist Leonardo Raspini entrusts enologist Axel Heinz with them.

The road from production to the bottle is long and is interrupted by several passages and tastings. The task of the winemaker is mentor to the technical team in every phase of the winemaking process and to capture the notes that make up the blend of Le Serre Nuove dell'Ornellaia barrel by barrel. If the decision for the composition of the blend is made, it is time for a little "time out": The Le Serre Nuove dell’ Ornellaia rests in barrels made of French oak (30% new and 70% a year old) - right next to the barrels of the Ornellaia - in the underground cellar. After six months of bottle maturation, the wine presented to the market.

"After a cool winter and spring and a very hot summer, which showed no significant rainfalls, the grapes were in a perfect condition when harvested," reports Leonardo Raspini, general director and agronomist of the Tenuta dell’ Ornellaia. "The North wind in mid- September lowered the temperatures. The breezy and sunny weather was particularly beneficial to the late-ripening grape varieties, which did not only successfully reach a beautiful ripeness, but which also formed an impressive aromatic and phenolic potential," he adds.

The 2008 vintage combines the great maturity of the Merlot, partly picked at the beginning of the harvest, with the particularly dense tannic structure of the Cabernet wines, brought in the wine cellar when the temperatures were cooler," said Axel Heinz, enologist at the Tenuta dell’ Ornellaia. "The deep ruby red wine has a ripe fruit and a spicy nose," says the winemaker. "It developed a meaningful and deep substance in which the sweetness of the Merlot combined with the vibrant tannins and vitality of the Cabernet Sauvignons and Cabernet Francs forms an interesting contrast." The 2008 vintage is a blend of 40% Merlot, 40% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15 % Cabernet Franc and 5% Petit Verdot. (red.yoopress)