When famous Tuscan wine estate Tenuta dell’Ornellaia unveiled a white counterpart to its expensive flagship red in 2016, 400 bottles were offered via online lottery to Relais & Chateaux’s U.S. restaurants. Despite a price tag of more than $200 each, they were scooped up in minutes.

What a surprise! Italy’s white wines rarely get the same global respect or prices as its collectible reds from such regions as Tuscany (Super Tuscans, Brunello) and Piemonte, home of Barolo and Barbaresco. But they should.  Global wine marketplace Liv-ex ranks the world’s top labels on their average trade prices. In the latest ranking, of the 39 Italian wines that qualified, only one was white.