20 whites from 20 regions

All over the country, Italy's unparalleled cast of grape varieties produce an array of top-quality white wines worthy of greater acclaim than they often receive

- ALDO FIORDELLI

Mattia Spedicato, wine manager at Michelin three-star Geranium in Copenhagen (No1 in The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2022 list), impressed producers last October in Sicily when he confessed that two-thirds of the restaurant’s wine list is dedicated to white wines: in the past, an old vintage of a Chardonnay, a Fiano or a Trebbiano was presumed unsellable as consumers were wary of white wines more than a year or two old.

‘Fine white wines are lacking in Italy,’ stated Antinori’s CEO Renzo Cotarella during the launch of a new top-shelf Chardonnay, Nibbio, produced at the company’s Umbrian estate Castello della Sala, also the source of the prestigious Cervaro della Sala. For me, the turning point in the perception of Italy’s fine whites was a decade ago. Frescobaldi released the 2013 first vintage of Ornellaia Bianco (see box) in 2015, and today, in part due to limited quantity, it costs more than its red sibling.