Winemaker Notes
Ideal as an aperitif; perfect with grilled fish, sea salt bream and fish soup.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A citrusy and almondy Gavi with more depth and structure than most. Some real power at the texturally complex finish. Better from 2019. It shows at least five years of aging potential beyond that.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
If you love the linear and profound mineral sensations you get with the unoaked Cortese grape, this is your wine. The 2016 Gavi di Gavi La Meirana is a dry and delineated white wine that sports pristine aromas of honeydew melon, Granny Smith apple and crushed flint or granite. The wine is crisp and streamlined in terms of mouthfeel, but it offers just enough acidity to keep the finish tangy and persistent. This is a beautifully refreshing drink.
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Wine & Spirits
Broglia vinifies its flagship bottling in stainless steel to preserve cortese’s floral scents and crisp pear and apple flavors. A touch of residual sugar accentuates the fruit, balanced by a pleasantly bitter almond note.
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Wine Spectator
An extra dimension of peach and melon fruit graces this round, juicy white. Vibrant and tense, with the acidity driving the lingering aftertaste. Drink now.
First recorded in the early 17th century in the province of Alessandria in SE Piedmont, Cortese today is most highly regarded from Gavi where soils are limestone-rich. It also grows well in the surrounding zones, namely Monferrato and Colli Tortonesi. Somm Secret—Because of its freshness and chalky minerality, this white wine commonly populates the fish restaurants’ wine lists of the Ligurian coast so practically owes more allegiance to this neighboring region than its home.
Among Piedmont’s most historical and respected white wine producing zones, Gavi—also known as Gavi di Gavi and Cortese di Gavi—comes from Piedmont's southeast, in the province of Alessandria. Gavi is the main town of the area; Cortese is the grape. Cortese for Gavi is grown in any of 11 communes in the area where the soils are abundant in chalky, white, limestone-rich clay. The best Gavi from these locations are delicately floral, with stone fruit and citrus characters and a crisp, mineral-laden finish.
While typically made in a fresh and unoaked style, by law Gavi can come in many forms: frizzante, spumante, metodo classico and méthode ancestrale. But most producers maintain a conventional winemaking practice of temperature-controlled fermentation in stainless steel and make fresh, still whites. However, there are several barrique-aged examples, which can be interesting. The biodynamic wines of Gavi, fermented with ambient yeasts can be the most expressive.