We find our wines through myriad avenues: tastings, foreign trips, wine fairs, solicited samples, unsolicited samples, recommendations etc. This wine entered my orbit thanks to my mother completing 94 orbits of the Sun, which we celebrated at an Italian restaurant in West London. As usual, the responsibility of choosing the wine was handed to me, but after confiding in the Sicilian waiter that I was a wine merchant and needed a bit of guidance to ensure my reputation wasn’t upended, he snapped the list shut and said “Do you trust me?”. I affirmed, partly because he had a trustworthy face and partly because I sensed that saying “no” might see me washed up under Albert Bridge.

He returned a few moments later, while I was reading the menu, and slid a bottle of this Lugana Bianco beneath my nose. I was immediately struck and pleasantly reassured by the elegant label, printed on textured paper. It’s silly, I know, but you drink with your eyes too, and an ugly label can easily point one’s confirmation bias in the wrong direction. He poured a taster sample and what I noticed first was the lovely pale silver-sage colour with green flecks at the edge. It looked so refreshing and made me crave my first sip.

The taste aligned perfectly with the visual impression, with cool, crystal-clear Trebbiano flavours awakening my tastebuds like a mountain stream flowing over aquatic grasses, although this mountain stream tasted of lime, pear, sweet apple and green melon! However, what encouraged me the most was the reaction of everyone at the table, who all, very much independently, congratulated me on my selection. As the waiter walked past, I gave him a secret fist-pump, a gesture which I hoped wasn’t some kind of threat or insult back in Sicily.

It’s the perfect wine for a dinner party, as it’s elegantly understated and has universal appeal, but it also has enough interest to merit a little quiet inner contemplation, should your dinner guest turn the topic of conversation to loft conversions.

It can also be that idyllic glass of white wine, frosty from condensation, iridescent in its shades of green, that you have been thinking about all day at the office. It’s almost worth having an awful day at work, just to be able to come home to this!

It won a Trophy at the Falstaff Awards and a Gold Medal at Mundus Vini, but that won’t make it taste any better. 13% alc. Unoaked. Drink now-2027.