La Scolca Gavi dei Gavi Black Label 2020
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Tasting
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James
Suckling
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Intense nose, long, continuous, persistent, from fruited to flowery to stage of development. Highly typical palate, flinty accents; almonds and hazelnut in the finale.
Excellent with any meal; also for the usual pairings with white wines (fish, shellfish and seafood), well paired with white meats, fowl and light meats. Also ideal as aperitif and after dinner.
Professional Ratings
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Tasting Panel
Scented with jasmine, marzipan, and fresh linen. Salty minerality peeks through notes of lemon verbena and passion-fruit sorbet, met by well-mannered acidity. Lean, pure, and pedigreed, this wine is "the classic of the classics," in owner Chiara Soldati's words.
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James Suckling
Lots of minerals on the nose with hints of citrus blossoms. Medium body with the same mineral base, carrying a thin bead of really tangy, almost steely citrus-fruit flavor. A little aggressive on the palate, at least for now. This may need a year or so to calm down. Drink or hold.
Other Vintages
2019-
Tasting
Panel -
James
Suckling
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James
Suckling
La Scolca is an artisanal winery, which pioneered modern, controlled vinification in stainless steel to preserve the subtle fruit of the Cortese grape. Yields are kept low, well below the legal maximum, through severe pruning and thinning. The oldest vines and best sites are reserved for their Gavi dei Gavi, packaged in a clear Burgundy-style bottle with a distinctive black label.
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.