How Italians Started Making Top-Tier Chardonnay
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With all the incredible white grapes cultivated across Italy—Falanghina, Vermentino, and Fiano come to mind—little attention is paid to the French transplant Chardonnay, which is cultivated from as far north as Trentino-Alto Adige all the way to Sicily in the south. Grown in regions as varied as Piedmont, Tuscany, and Lombardy, Italian Chardonnay can hold its own against the best from Burgundy and elsewhere in the world. One of the finest we enjoyed recently was Gaja Gaia & Rey Chardonnay from the Langhe DOP in Piedmont, which is better known among wine lovers for Nebbiolo, Barbaresco, and Arneis. Its incredible depth, terrific acidity, and full body got us thinking about other versions we’ve had and how top-tier Italian Chardonnay has really come into its own.
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Although one would expect Chardonnay to be a new development in Piedmont, the Gaja family first planted it in the Langhe in 1979. Gaia Gaja, fifth-generation proprietor of Gaja Properties, tells us that her father Angelo knew it was a gamble to plant it on land that had previously been home only to red varieties. “The intuition was to imagine that a land that gives wines of great personality, finesse, acidity, structure, and longevity such as Barbaresco could also be suitable for a structured white wine with long aging potential,” she says. The gamble paid off, and today Gaia & Rey—which Angelo named for his first daughter and his grandmother, Clotilde Rey—sits among not just the finest Chardonnays from Italy but from those across the entire wine world.
Gaia & Rey was the first Italian white wine to be fermented and aged in barrels, according to Gaja, a practice that continues today; it also goes through 100 percent malolactic fermentation. She says the initial inspiration was Burgundy, but that doesn’t mean that famed Chardonnay region should be the measuring stick for Italian Chards. “It’s high time for many of the world’s regions to be considered as their own benchmarks,” says Michael Duffy, corporate wine director at Stefano Secchi’s Rezd?ra and Massara restaurants. “Gaia & Rey is a wine that is both ethereal and intense, delicate and broad, with a gentle power that makes it equally compelling on its own as it is with food.”
Thanks to its acidity and structure, Duffy likes to pair it with sole meunière. Coincidentally, Amy Thurmond, the Grill’s wine director, pairs Gaia & Rey with that restaurant’s take on the same dish as well as with its Dungeness crab cakes. Thurmond compares Gaia & Rey to Chablis but also notes it has similar qualities to Santa Barbara Chardonnay, especially its herbaceous notes and acidity. Though, the variety can be divisive. “Either you love it, or you hate it,” she says. So Thurmond likes to talk about Italian Chardonnay’s “mineral-driven, restrained, and bright” qualities when explaining it to guests.
Another iteration we found in our glasses not that long ago is Cabreo La Pietra Chardonnay di Toscana, which the Folonari family has been making since 1983. Grown on estate vineyards in Chianti, another region not normally noted for white varieties, La Pietra is matured for 12 months in large oak tonneaux that offer a lighter touch of wood than traditional barrels, which are significantly smaller. Winemaker Roberto Potentini says estate conditions, including “the height and exposure of the vineyards, deep soils rich in fossils, and temperature fluctuations during the ripening period,” are perfect for the cultivation of Chardonnay in this part of Tuscany. Sommelier Brett Wilson, the Italian portfolio specialist at Kobrand (Cabreo’s U.S. importer), compares this wine to Chardonnay from Meursault and likes to pair it with salads and fresh greens as well as octopus and Tuscan seafood stews. While he thinks Italian Chardonnay like this is great as an aperitif, he calls it “a chameleon wine,” pointing out that “it can go with nearly any dish and disguise itself around it.”
Although Isole e Olena Collezione Privata Chardonnay IGT Toscana has been produced for 35 years, we reacquainted ourselves with this mineral-driven Tuscan white within the past year. Winemaker and estate director Emanuele Reolon says the vineyard’s high altitude and cooling breezes from the Mediterranean, clay and limestone soils, and optimal sun exposure all contribute to the wine’s balanced flavors, well-integrated acidity, and bold minerality. Fermentation and maturation in a combination of new and used French oak barrels add notes of spice to its fresh citrus flavors, while aging on the lees intensifies the texture and contributes touches of dried Mediterranean herbs and freshly baked bread.
“Chardonnay’s capacity to reflect terroir makes it a fascinating grape to plant in a country as geologically and climatically diverse as Italy,” Duffy says. A wide variety of storied producers such as Aldo Conterno, Ca’ del Bosco, Planeta, and Coppo produce distinct bottlings of luscious Chardonnay. Although it is often overshadowed by the country’s wide range of indigenous grapes, Italian Chardonnay is definitely worthy of any serious wine lover’s attention.
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