2019 Ornus dell’Ornellaia

A dessert wine built on 100% Petit Manseng, the 2019 Ornus Dell'Ornellaia is a ripe, exotic effort offering notes of honeyed mango, candied orange, caramelized grapefruit, and brioche aromas and flavors. More medium to full-bodied on the palate, it's light on its feet and graceful, with notable freshness and purity. It's going to be incredibly versatile as a dessert wine and, I suspect, age for decades, although there's no need to delay gratification either.

Packaged in its distinctive amphorae-shaped 375-milliliter bottle, the Ornellaia 2019 Ornus dell'Ornellaia (made with late-harvest Petit Manseng) shows a shiny golden color with polished copper highlights. The wine is redolent of sweet honey, dried apricot, jasmine and a touch of lemon blossom or bergamot. The mouthfeel is glycerine-rich and creamy, with a pretty heaviness that is packed with sweetness, fruit and the necessary acidity to invite sip after sip. This dessert wine is a lot of fun.

A gorgeous sweet wine that brings a smile to your face. Dried apricots and flowers with peach pie on the nose. Full-bodied with medium sweetness and phenolic tension that gives you a firm and persistent mouth-feel. It tightens on the finish. Medium-sweet finish. Lovely acidity. Drink now.