2018 Colore Bianco

I saw the birth of this wine and am honored to report on its progression now. When I visited Bibi Graetz's tiny garage winery on the island of Giglio last year during harvest, I had the opportunity to taste this (it was hardly wine yet) from barrel. Ansonica grapes from the Pietrabuona vineyard, not too far from the estate's breathtaking Serrone that overlooks the Tyrrhenian Sea, were fermented apart, thanks to the obvious quality of the fruit. From the start, Bibi Graetz and his team knew that these three barrels from this single-vineyard site were different than the rest. That's why they decided to make a new wine, the 2018 Colore Bianco, and the idea is to continue production in the future. During our afternoon tasting this year, I tasted this wine from two bottles: one was opened just before I tasted it, and the second bottle had been open since about 10 a.m. that morning. Ironically, the morning bottle was a bit more shy, but both presented beautiful tones of peach, sweet almond paste, honeysuckle and pure salinity driven by the proximity of the sea from all points on tiny Giglio island. There is an Italian or Sicilian word, "zagara," for orange blossom, and I get a lot of that here. Island viticulture sees grapevines trellised with bamboo sticks, with four canes used in a sort of twisted guyot. Sometimes acidity can be a problem on Giglio, but the cooler 2018 vintage delivers good freshness, and Bibi harvested on the early side to achieve these results. This is one of Tuscany's most distinctive and precious (with only 900 bottles made) white wines.