Winemaker Notes
The color is a pale straw-yellow with greenish highlights. Its intense nose is refined, fruity and floral bringing to mind golden apples and green almonds. It
has a clear overtone of chamomile flowers. The taste is harmonious and
decidedly flavorful.
This is an ideal wine to pair with tasty appetizers, seafood and fish. Thanks to
its structure and mineral content, it also matches well with rice, vegetable pies,
light first courses and fish dishes and it goes perfectly with soft fresh cheeses.
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.