Ornellaia – so how are the wines?

Visitors to this site know that Lodovico Antinori's Bolgheri estate (born in the early 1980s just down the road from his uncle's Sassicaia) has been undergoing a certain Mondavification of late. I met the current winemaker recently, French-born of an Italian mother, Thomas Duroux who had previously been working on the aborted Mondavi Languedoc project in Aniane. He stood his ground steadfastly and diplomatically when under fire about exactly what proportion of Ornellaia Mondavi now owns. ('I spoke with him yesterday about that. I don't know exactly. I think it's a minority.') He also manfully defended Lodovico's abandoned passion for...