The 2017 Vespa Bianco is Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and a small part of Picolit. This pretty wine opens to extra softness, plushness and roundness that is due to the exuberant and ripe fruit produced in this vintage. The core base of fruit used to make this wine feels tight and rich, and there is enough freshness here to give the wine lasting balance. The red grapes were at more of a disadvantage in this hot vintage, and the wine varieties showed better overall results.

This blend of mostly Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc, with a touch of Picolit, was bottled in July 2017. Once again, Bastianich offers us some wonderful candied fruit notes along with some tart lemon soda in the 2016 Vespa Bianco. The wine shines with bright intensity and possesses remarkable balance. There is a nice creaminess to the texture, and it has inner firmness and tightness that bodes well for the way the wine will evolve over the next few years. This is a beautiful blend.

Here's another winning edition of this great wine. The 2015 Vespa Bianco has that familiar creamy texture and richness but a more evolved aromatic profile. What's special about this vintage is the dimension it now shows along with some very tonic fruit at the back. It is spicy and warm, with flashes of bright tangerine, and offers so much intensity and textural purity. This beautiful wine calls for a nice grilled ocean fish, such as orata or (more readily available in North America) a black sea bass.

The 2013 Vespa Bianco is a landmark wine that is symbolic of the region's immense wine potential. This blend of 45% Chardonnay, 45% Sauvignon and 10% Picolit offers beautiful richness and opulence with shapely aromas of stone fruit, honey, preserved lemon and toasted almond. Half of the wine is aged in stainless steel and the other half goes into 4,000-liter Slavonian oak casks.

The 2012 Vespa Bianco is one of the great white wines of northeast Italy. It is distinguished by the rich creaminess of its texture and beautifully abundant aromatic intensity. The wine opens to compelling tones of peach, stone fruit, white rose, creamy almond paste and apple pie. The wine is made with Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and a small part Picolit, which adds much of the intensity and the overall fruity softness. Balanced acidity and rich consistency gives the wine an enduring sense of balance.