The Pio Cesare family’s unique winemaking method stresses minimal intervention to produce wines of particularly supple flavor expression. A ceaseless devotion to the individuality of each of the region’s wines informs Pio Cesare's choices in the cellar: shorter maceration, separate lot fermentation, judicious selection for barrel and large cask aging, and bottling schedules determined by the ideal structure of each wine. This allows Pio Cesare to craft wines of varying weight, ageability and drinkability as determined by the vineyard rather than market fashion.

First released with the 1985 vintage and conceived as a tribute to the influential women of the Pio Cesare family (Pio di lei translating to "for the ladies"), Chardonnay Piodilei represents the family's desire to produce a white wine with the same body, complexity and aging potential of the great reds historically produced in the Langhe. The family produces very small quantities of this wine. 

From the inaugural 1985 vintage to the 2018 release, Piodilei Chardonnay was a single-vineyard, barrel-fermented Chardonnay. Grape sourcing changed in the 2019 vintage by complementing the historical Il Bricco estate vineyard in Treiso Barbaresco—where the family's first Chardonnay grapes were planted in 1981—with the Mosconi vineyard in Monforte d'Alba.

Yields in both vineyards remain low and grapes are harvested rather late when fully ripened. The fermentation starts in stainless steel tanks and then finishes in French oak barriques, one-third of which are new. During élevage, the wine spends eight months in French oak barriques with extensive lees contact. Nine additional months of bottle-aging before release.

Spicy, creamy and intense with a soft but long aftertaste. Sweet fruit, hot and ripe, still very fresh with an elegant touch of oak. Built for the cellar, this wine has a very long aging potential. 

Despite the early picking and difficult weather conditions throughout the growing season, the quality results achieved during the 2022 harvest were excellent, partly due to the rigorous vineyard management realized by our team and to the surprising resiliency of the vines growing in the Langhe hillsides.

We started the harvest of our white grape varieties on August 22nd with Sauvignon Blanc and we finished on August 29th with the last bunches of Chardonnay. Eight days of “tour de force” without any rest. The grapes were very ripe and, despite the heat, exhibited good acidity levels and luckily we didn’t have any significant drops in yield. In fact, we are growing these grape varieties in the coolest and highest exposures of our vineyards, which usually do not suffer too much from the heat.