Ghiaie Bianche Chardonnay Toscana IGT 2024

Wine description for Ghiaie Bianche Chardonnay Toscana IGT 2024 by Col d’Orcia

Colour & appearance

Deep golden yellow with delicate green reflections — a glass that signals ripeness without appearing heavy.

Nose

Lush, almost nostalgic: ripe peach, candied quince, melon, mango, along with lychee and a hint of banana. Yet the true hallmark is the waxy, honeyed layer — beeswax, warm candle, honeycomb — which lends depth without ever tasting sweet. Lemon thyme, lemon balm and freshly cracked hazelnut provide the counterpoint.

Palate

Here the wine reveals its second face. What the nose promised as opulent becomes taut, grippy and lively on the palate. A pronounced acidity runs through the entire course, keeping the yellow fruit in check. Beeswax remains present but steps back behind herbal accents and an almost ethereal spiciness. The drinkability is remarkable — a wine that can be both accessible and demanding at once.

Finish

Persistent and mouth-watering, with a lingering tension between warm fruit and cool freshness. No trace of heaviness in the aftertaste, but rather a clear, energetic finale.

Terroir & origin

Col d’Orcia is located in Sant’Angelo in Colle, in the south-west of the Brunello region, on the hill above the River Orcia. The estate cultivates 142 hectares of vines in the UNESCO World Heritage Val d’Orcia — since 2010 as the largest certified organic winery in Tuscany. Sheep and goats graze between the rows, and compost from the estate’s own cycle nourishes the soils.

Grape variety & vinification

Pure Chardonnay, vinified dry, 13.5% vol. The vinification details are left to the estate — the result speaks for itself: a wine that combines the ripe, almost baroque aromatics of the 1990s with the precision and freshness of modern Tuscan white wines.

Food recommendations

The combination of waxiness and acidity calls for dishes with substance: pan-fried turbot with beurre blanc, stuffed pasta with mushrooms and sage butter, grilled octopus on chickpea purée, or a mature Pecorino with honey.

Special features

A Chardonnay that refuses to make up its mind — and convinces precisely because of this. The discrepancy between the lush nose and the taut palate is not a contradiction but the very theme. Anyone who knows Chardonnay only as heavy and buttery will be proved wrong here.