Ratings & Tasting Notes:

94 points James Suckling

A beautiful surprise showing incredible resilience and elegant, old-school charisma. The nose is highly expressive and savory, throwing off gorgeous aromas of sweet Mediterranean herbs, thyme, basil, and a light plum undertone. The medium-bodied palate carries remarkably firm and silky tannins, delivering dusty, smoky, and meaty dimensions that add impressive nuance before easing into a fresh, clean finish. This is holding on incredibly well for a slightly wet harvest season. James Suckling, November 2016

89 points Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

A decidedly small-scaled, mid-weight effort that emphasizes harmony and pristine balance over sheer power. The bouquet is highly attractive and fragrant, revealing delicate, complex notes of cured tobacco leaf, cedar, and dried spices that add a lovely measure of nuance to the core of faded red fruit. While it lacks the sheer blockbuster complexity of the region’s heavyweight vintages, it nevertheless possesses an impeccably polished silhouette. Antonio Galloni, December 2009

Cult Wines International Notes:

Tenuta dell’Ornellaia stands as an elite, globally revered titan of the Bolgheri estate landscape, originally founded in 1981 by Marchese Lodovico Antinori on Tuscany’s sun-drenched Mediterranean coast. Celebrated for bringing an opulent, cinematic New World flare to traditional Bordeaux varieties, the estate helped define the modern “Super Tuscan” movement, cementing Bolgheri as one of the world’s premier terroirs for elite Cabernet and Merlot. The estate’s eponymous flagship cuvée, Ornellaia, is a masterful expression of maritime-influenced viticulture. The 1994 release showcases a classic, old-school Super Tuscan composition, precisely weaving 81% Cabernet Sauvignon, 14% Merlot, and 5% Cabernet Franc sourced entirely from the estate’s complex, alluvial, and marine-fossil soils.

The 1994 growing season across the Tuscan coast was a unique, highly dramatic climatic narrative that ultimately favored late-ripening Bordeaux varieties over inland Sangiovese. The season began with an abnormally warm, accelerated spring that triggered an exceptionally early flowering for the Merlot by mid-May. An intensely hot, bone-dry summer followed, presenting minor drought pressures until early September, when the region experienced a brief series of rain showers. While these late-summer rains presented dilution risks for many inland producers, Ornellaia’s coastal breezes rapidly dried the canopies, allowing the fruit to achieve a smooth, unhurried phenolic maturation. The manual harvest was executed with fanatical precision from September 4th through October 14th, utilizing small 15 kg baskets to keep the berries immaculate. The grapes underwent an extended 21-to-30-day maceration before being transferred into French oak barriques (33% new, predominantly from Alliers and Nevers) for 15 months of maturation, followed by bottling completely unfined and unfiltered.

At over three decades of age, the 1994 Ornellaia has transitioned beautifully into a highly sophisticated, fully mature library artifact. The youthful, jammy primary fruit has elegantly stepped aside to reveal complex, tertiary layers of saddle leather, forest floor, dried black cherries, tomato leaf, and espresso bean. Supported by fully integrated, satin-like tannins and a clean, food-friendly spine of maritime acidity, this rare vintage offers a highly rewarding, savory tasting experience for serious collectors of aged Italian royalty.