Ornellaia Bolgheri DOC "Il Vigore" (Artist Label) 2019

Since 2006, Ornellaia has commissioned a major international contemporary artist each harvest to interpret a single word chosen by the winemaker — for 2019, that word is Il Vigore (The Vigour), and the vintage earns it. Founder Marchese Lodovico Antinori conceived this estate in direct rivalry with Sassicaia and Solaia, planting Bordeaux varieties on Tuscany's Tyrrhenian coast where no appellation hierarchy yet existed.

The 99 ha across two blocks — the original clay-dominant estate and the stonier, alluvial Bellaria property north of Bolgheri — sit at 50–120 m asl, with Tyrrhenian Sea breezes moderating summer heat and delivering the saline coastal freshness that defines Ornellaia's house character. The 2019 growing season is widely regarded as outstanding in Bolgheri: glamorous, seductive, and marked by notable saline minerality.

Each variety and block is vinified separately: fermentation in stainless steel and concrete below 25°C, followed by 10–15 days maceration (total vat time ~3 weeks). Malolactic fermentation occurs in barrel, and the wine ages 18 months in French oak barriques (70% new, 30% once-used) — first 12 months as individual components, then assembled and returned to barrel for a further 6 months, plus a minimum 12 months bottle age before release.

What no peer in Bolgheri replicates: the Vendemmia d'Artista programme ties each bottle to a specific cultural commission, with proceeds benefiting the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation — making provenance here simultaneously viticultural and institutional. The 2019 is drinking beautifully now and will reward cellaring well into the 2030s and beyond.