2020 Ornellaia Poggio alle Gazze dell'Ornellaia Toscana Bianco Tuscany 750 ml

Ornellaia is a Super Tuscan legend—one of the world’s most coveted wine producers, alongside First Growth Bordeaux and cult California Cabernet houses. Antonio Galloni of Vinous said the estate’s iconic red  has “never failed to literally send shivers down my spine.” 

After Ornellaia’s revered, cerebral winemaker Axel Heinz first had the idea for the Super Tuscan powerhouse to make a white wine, it took years to bring the project to fruition, beginning with planting vines in the late 2000s. Over a decade later, the result is something extraordinary. 

James Suckling has compared Ornellaia’s Poggio alle Gazze Tuscano Bianco to “drinking a glass of Bordeaux’s legendary dry white Domaine de Chevalier and a glass of the great Hermitage blanc from Jean-Louis Chave at the same time.”

The 2020 vintage was superb for the region—arguably one of the greatest in recent Bolgheri history. The early harvest and lack of water stress allowed the grapes to express a beautiful aromatic suppleness, yielding what Jeb Dunnuck called “easily my favorite vintage of this cuvée to date.” 

Primarily composed of Sauvignon Blanc blended with smaller amounts of Vermentino, Viognier, and Verdicchio, this release will thrill lovers of full-bodied, fresh whites. It displays the New World influences Heinz absorbed when first fine-tuning the cuvée: He said that tasting Napa Valley whites from estates like Araujo led him to emphasize Sauvignon Blanc and Viognier.

Under Heinz’s protégé, winemaker Olga Fusari, the 2020’s vinification produced a balance of weighty richness and juicy freshness. Half the wine was fermented in oak barriques and half in stainless steel, followed by aging on the lees with regular batonnage to lend the wine a luscious, fleshy texture.