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The name Principessa Gavia comes from a historical tale: a princess named Gavia fell in love with a handsome man who served as a guard in her father's court. The couple sought the king's permission to marry, but he refused to have his daughter wed out of her class. Desperate, the young couple fled to a distant part of the kingdom and settled in a sleepy village on the other side of the alps.
They eluded the king's troops until one night, after enjoying a generous amount of a local white wine, the groom confided their story to the local innkeeper. The innkeeper nodded and feigned sympathy, but sent word to the king and collected a handsome reward. Troops found the couple and brought them back to the king to face punishment.
The King looked into his daughter's eyes and could not help but forgive her. He blessed their union, and as a wedding gift, bequeathed them the town which they had chosen to settle in. In her honor he gave the name Gavi to the town as well as the charming white wine they drank.
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.
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.