Ornellaia, Toscana IGT (Tuscany, Italy) 2020

 Every great wine deserves a great back story, and in this case a great comeback story.  The legend building is that, after Ornellaia decided a few years ago to no longer make a white wine and had re-grafted Sauvignon Blanc vines over to Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, a young intern noticed some vines stubbornly continuing to produce white grapes.  Madre di Dio!  So, cuvées were made, decisions reached and we have this latest vintage of the resurrected white.  The kicker now is that, under Axel Heinz’s direction, the young intern, Olga Fusari, has become the wine’s maker.  And it is a stunning white, an equal of the best of its Bordeaux counterparts, with its green and blue fruits and flower aromas floating out of the glass and then dancing across the palate.  Unlike most Sauvignon blends (there is Vermentino in there) the green fruit here is an accent and not the prime flavor; instead, that is of stone fruits and a lingering tropical fruit flavor (Viognier) in the finish.  There is also a lovely little edge of bitters – as with a peel to an apple’s flesh.  Overall, the wine is complex, but the flavors are fully integrated, and the structure is fresh and well-balanced.  The 2020 Poggio alla Gaze will age well, but I for one will miss its youthful loveliness.