Ca' La Bionda, “Bianco del Casal”

Speaking of a wine requiring an extra push (see this morning’s offer if you don’t know what I’m talking about), I’m tempted to type up this offer in ALL CAPS. That’s how hyped I am for Ca’ La Bionda’s “Bianco del Casal.” For so long, only a small handful of Italian white wines have been considered “world-class” by my sommelier peers. I tended to agree with them, but, as I’ve been insisting for a while now, Italian whites are very much on the rise. Bianco del Casal, a blend of Garganega and Trebbiano, is Exhibit A, and I’m not the only one who thinks so.Everyone on the SommSelect team was blown away by this wine, proclaiming it every inch as good as the many white Burgundies we were tasting at the same time. It is a dense, mineral, structured white that wouldn’t be out of place in Chassagne-Montrachet since it hails from similar clay/limestone soils in the heart of the Valpolicella Classico. In terms of the grape varieties used and the location of the vineyards, the obvious analog would