Is Le Serre Nuove Italy’s best second wine?

Two years ago, during a preview of the latest released vintages in Tuscany’s celebrated village of Bolgheri, Le Serre Nuove dell’Ornellaia – the second wine of Ornellaia, showed better than Ornellaia itself.

This unusual result was due to the ripe and powerful 2015 vintage of the former, a Bolgheri DOC wine, versus the cool, rainy 2014 vintage of the Bolgheri Superiore grand vin (Bolgheri Superiore has to age longer before it’s released). It’s success is the consequence of a well-pondered approach instilled in the winery since 1997.

Scroll down to see Aldo’s vertical tasting of Le Serre Nuove

The most recent vintage release was presented in Milan at the end of November, with an unprecedented vertical tasting – especially for a second vin – dating back to its debut. The number ‘20’ in the centre of the label for the 2017 vintage recalls a 20-year history of achievements that have accompanied this wine.

Le Serre Nuove is arguably the ‘business card’ for Ornellaia, offering an insight into how the grand vin might age – in top vintages, the differences between Le Serre Nuove and its bigger brother are truly minimal. However, the temptation to over-rate a second vin such as Le Serre Nuove should be avoided. Most of the time it comes from young vines and includes both a larger proportion of press wines and a lesser amount of new oak ageing, compared with Ornellaia. ‘The winery’s intention is to make the best Ornellaia possible,’ admits Axel Heinz, managing director of the estate.

Support of the fact that Le Serre Nuove is complementary to Ornellaia lies in the numbers: the former has a production of 250,000 bottles, the latter 150,000. However, we should also avoid considering the second wine intrinsically inferior – Le Serre Nuove should be rediscovered not by considering what it is not, but by recognising the capabilities of a top second wine. Most of all and generally speaking, in times of increasingly priced fine wines, second wines provide polite options against ostentation, elegant alternatives for everyday fine wine drinking, and safe bargains for wine lists in restaurants.

Le Serre Nuove is a sort of litmus test of the vintage, compared to the steady consistency of Ornellaia, which makes it an exceptional key to reading Bolgheri. The 2008 vintage is the quintessential example of what a second wine should be: full of power and complexity, yet a bit too rustic to be considered a flagship wine. However, 2006 and 2013 are extremely close in character to Ornellaia due to an extraordinary balance between power and elegance. One should be tempted to taste both wines side by side.

Le Serre Nuove is often an inversely proportional blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot to Ornellaia, depending on the vintage. The Le Serre Nuove blend is the outcome of an assessment of grapes originating from specific parcels of the estate’s vineyards as well as various base wines, all with a clear vision of the wine that will be created: another face of Ornellaia, an elevated expression of its Bolgheri Rosso DOC appellation. Born in the shadow of Ornellaia, Le Serre Nuove today shines by itself, crowned as the best Italian second wine.

Le Serre Nuove vertical:

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