2021 di Lenardo Chardonnay Monovitigno Venezia Giulia 750 ml

From the northern province once pronounced “the best Italian wine region you’ve never heard of” comes an eye-opening, electric, value Chardonnay—one that will be tough to top.

A bombshell bargain that won 92 points from James Suckling, the 2020 Di Lenardo Monovitigno from Friuli-Venezia Giulia will explode your notion of what Italian Chardonnay can be. A gorgeous, gold-tinged expression of a single, rare clone, it’s got zesty flavor, crisp acidity, and a green-apple bite that lingers over a long finish. 

Sourced from a region that Jancis Robinson said is “worshipped by many Italian wine lovers,” the family behind Di Lenardo has deep roots, cultivating grapes in the region since the 1800s. The vineyards are estate-owned, spread across five plots.

Friuli-Venezia Giulia is the source of Italy’s finest white wines—yet many buyers would struggle to find it on a map.

East of Venice, centered right between Austrian Alps on the north and the Adriatic Sea to the south, and bordering Austria and Slovenia, the region produces pure, luminous whites that show a singular complexity born of ocean and mountain, salt and stone. “Italian connoisseurs have been prepared to pay well over the odds for them,” said Robinson.

Winemaker and owner Massimo de Lenardo emphasizes elegant fruit, crisp acidity, and varietal integrity with this bottling. It is the only wine in Friuli made entirely with the musqué clone of Chardonnay, a biotype that imbues the nose with gorgeous, heady, white-floral aromatics.

Fermented in stainless-steel tanks, the wine matures on fine lees for three months and undergoes regular batonnage, adding a supple texture that balances the grapes’ natural vibrancy, resulting in a crowd-pleasing, unoaked, immensely satisfying white.