Is Le Serre Nuove Italy’s Best Second Wine?

Decanter Magazine‘s Aldo Fiordelli makes the case that Ornellaia’s ‘little brother’ Le Serre Nuove dell Ornellaia might just be Italy’s best second wine. At the end of November, Fiordelli had the please of participating in an unprecedented vertical tasting, especially for a second vin, dating back to Le Serre Nouve’s debut twenty years ago in 1997. Fiordelli details that second wines can often be tricky to evaluate: there are equal temptations to over-rate them while simultaneously view them as intrinsically inferior. However, he notes that “Le Serre Nuove should be rediscovered not by considering what it is not, but by recognizing 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.”

With this sentiment in mind, it becomes easier to view Le Serre Nuove in its true form “a blend that 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.”

To read more about Le Serre Nuove and see the tasting notes for two decades of Le Serre Nuove, read the full article below.