Tenuta dell'Ornellaia Bolgheri 2006/Mag

• Tasting Notes:
  
  A dark, glossy, claret-coloured wine with an enticing if rather youthful nose. Its composition is 50% Merlot, 35% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Cabernet Franc and 6% Petit Verdot. There is dense, dark fruit, rather akin to damsons, or black cherries, but also a high-toned slightly volatile note which flips in every now and again. On top of this we have fleeting glimpses of raspberry ripple ice cream, toffee and vanilla, which are most probably oak-related elements which will integrate and disappear with time in the cellar. Later on it shows a more vibrant cranberry character. The palate starts off dense and creamy, and this impressive texture persists through the midpalate to the finish. Beneath it all, chalky tannins, ripe and grippy structure and a tingling acid backbone. There are notes of black pepper, flower petals, ash and more, all rounded off by a firm finish. A good, vigorous, nicely framed wine which has a little length, which shows waves of damson fruit and more of that peppery ash. A really very good wine, and a true success for the estate.