2024 Campo Della Fortuna Pinot Grigio 750 ml

Verona’s Valle d’Illasi is best known for its thrilling red wines—Valpolicella and Amarone—but it’s also an A+ terroir for growing world-beating Pinot Grigio.

These days, Pinot Grigio is grown from California’s Central Valley to the heel of the Italian boot, but the reason the grape is so popular is because of the wines produced in the former Republic of Venice, in northeastern Italy.

So we could barely contain our excitement as we were cruising along the E70 out of Marco Polo, our tiny Fiat valiantly trying to keep up with Padua’s commercial traffic in the right-hand lane. Tourist season was in full-bloom, and we were far from the only rental car violating local customs on the highways, but we had a different mission in mind.

We’d gotten a hot tip that there might be an opportunity with one of Veneto's most respected wineries—a pioneer in organic farming that does everything right, as far as we were concerned—whose bottles had graced our tables for years. The family has been making wine for over a century, and long ago cemented their reputation for both whites and reds. They make one of our favorite Pinot Grigios out there, one that combines the beautiful peach-scented aromatics and silky fruit of a warm climate with the brightness and zest that has a touch of flinty minerality.

And they had some extra wine to sell.

Apparently they were due to private-label one of their signature wines for a big, high-end retailer in Central Europe—the Germans and Austrians love these guys—until the deal fell through at the last minute. So they had a few pallets of Pinot Grigio ready to go, but in different bottles than they’d normally use, and without any labels. Were we interested?

One glass confirmed our enthusiasm, and by that evening we were celebrating our good fortune at La Taverna di Via Stella in Verona. This is a beautiful Pinot Grigio, organically farmed and carefully crafted—it way over-delivers. Sometimes Lady Luck smiles on you.