Ornellaia Bianco Bolgheri DOC 2021

The idea of producing a white wine in an area as famous for red wines as Bolgheri had already occurred to the founder of Ornellaia: Lodovico Antinori. He decided to plant white grapes in the 1980s and produced the first Ornellaia white wine (Poggio alle Gazze). From Bordeaux Ornellaia not only took black grape varieties, but also a white grape such as Sauvignon blanc. With this Ornellaia produces the flagship white wine of the estate; in some years a small part of other varieties, such as Viognier, is added. To obtain a classy wine, the white grapes are carefully selected during the harvest and vinified in wood. In Bolgheri, the grapes enjoy a Mediterranean climate, with mild temperatures all year round and benefit from precious diurnal ranges in the summer thanks to the sea breezes.

The harvest is manual and is carried out during the early hours of the morning in small boxes, so as to bring healthy and fresh grapes to the cellar. After careful selection, the whole bunches are gently pressed and the free-run must is clarified by natural cold decanting. Alcoholic fermentation takes place in barriques of which 30% are new. Malolactic fermentation is not carried out. The wine ages for 10 months in barriques in contact with the fine lees with repeated bâtonnage. Then it ages 2 months in steel and 6 more months in the bottle.