The 1996 Langhe Gaia & Rey is a gorgeous expression of Chardonnay that left me absolutely delighted and surprised. At the end of my tasting of Gaja's reds, Gaia Gaja pulled out this previously opened magnum and offered a taste. The experience was memorable thanks to the gentle aging process that has enhanced and refined this luminous white. Its structure is intact and tight. The wine shows elegant tertiary aromas of crushed mineral dried fruit, apricot and dried sage. It is difficult to assign a drinking window to a wine like this given that it has already beat the odds by showing so well today.