In 1981, someone had the nerve to plant Cabernet and Merlot on the Tuscan coast in a place no one thought could grow great wine. Forty years later, Ornellaia is one of the most celebrated estates on the planet. Lamberto Frescobaldi joins Jeff Zacharia to tell the whole story and to explain why the best may still be ahead.

About Lamberto Frescobaldi

Lamberto Frescobaldi is the head of the Frescobaldi family wine estates, one of Italy's most historic wine dynasties with roots in Tuscany dating to the 14th century. Under his leadership, Frescobaldi acquired and built Ornellaia into a global benchmark, alongside celebrated estates including Masseto, CastelGiocondo, and Nipozzano.

In this conversation

— How Bolgheri went from an afterthought to one of Italy's great wine regions

— The 1998 Wine Spectator Top 100 moment Lamberto calls "a rocket" for Ornellaia

— What Ornellaia actually feels like; warm, polished, Mediterranean in spirit, never asking you to dress up for it

— Why Lamberto refuses the "Super Tuscan" label, and why he's grateful Americans invented it

— Walking a vineyard and seeing not a cluster of grapes but a bottle with a label already on it

— The new generation of wine drinkers, more open, more curious, less beholden to old hierarchies

— Why people will drink less wine in the years ahead, and why that is not a bad thing

— The line Lamberto says he would put on the back of every bottle: ‘forbidden to drink alone’

Timestamps

00:00 Introduction

01:35 Growing up Frescobaldi — countryside, cellars, and no pressure

05:45 An early sip through a straw and the feeling of being grown up

08:30 It all starts in the vineyard — a connection to Graeme MacDonald

11:27 How Ornellaia began: Bolgheri, Cabernet, and a radical vision

14:25 The 1985 first vintage and the road to recognition

15:24 The 1998 Wine Spectator Top 100 — the moment everything changed

16:40 How to describe Ornellaia: warmth, balance, and a wink

19:45 Super Tuscan — a label Lamberto never uses but is grateful for

25:26 How the luxury wine consumer is changing

28:26 The future of wine — opportunity, tension, and staying hungry

31:05 Bolgheri's continued potential and the challenge for new producers

34:34 The long view — investment horizons and generational thinking

35:10 Stewardship: echoes of Lafleur and Laura Catena

36:41 Authenticity: seeing a bottle hanging in the vineyard

39:03 Place matters more than ever — every bottle is a trip

40:52 Wine is not something you drink alone

42:01 Early wine memory: a straw, a bottle, and a room full of oil-sealed wine

44:06 Breakout moment: the best has yet to come

45:34 Advice for anyone who feels they don't belong in wine

Related episodes

Ep. 001 — Omri Ram, Château Lafleur

Ep. 004 — Graeme & Alex MacDonald, MacDonald Vineyards

Ep. 006 — Dr. Laura Catena, Bodega Catena Zapata

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