Querciabella farms this from the hills of Chianti Classico, though the wine itself sits outside the appellation's rules. Batar is a Toscana IGT, which is the label a Tuscan estate uses when it wants to plant French varieties and blend them its own way, without the DOCG committee looking over its shoulder. Here that means Chardonnay and Pinot Bianco together, picked from the estate's own vineyards and made as a serious, age-worthy white rather than an afterthought.
- Chardonnay and Pinot Bianco, blended.
- Toscana IGT, the flexible Tuscan designation.
- 2014, a cooler vintage in Tuscany.
- Full body, dry, medium acidity.
- 13.5% alcohol, 750ml.
How it is made
Toscana IGT exists precisely so a Tuscan estate can work with grapes the DOCG rules do not allow, or blend them differently than the rules permit. Querciabella grows Chardonnay and Pinot Bianco on its own land and bottles them together under that designation. The result is a white built with the same intent as the estate's reds: something meant to hold in the cellar rather than be drunk the week it is released.
How it tastes
Baked apple and lemon curd lead, with chamomile and toasted almond coming through behind. There is a flinty edge on the finish that keeps the whole thing from tipping into softness. Full in the mouth, low in tannin, dry, with acidity at a medium level, so the fruit stays the loudest thing in the glass rather than the structure.
Where it comes from
Tuscany is better known for Sangiovese than for Chardonnay, and the IGT category is where that conversation happens. The hills of central Italy give warm days and cool nights, which is what lets a white grape keep its acid while it ripens. A 2014 white from this part of the world has had time in the bottle to settle into something rounder than it was on release.
Good to know
The IGT label was created in the 1990s to give Tuscan producers a legal home for wines that did not fit the old DOC rules, most famously the Super Tuscans. Batar is one of the whites that came out of that same loosening, at a time when Tuscan estates were proving they could make more than red.
