Italian wine varieties: Gavi from Piedmont

I had a couple of friends stay with me over the last few days who, not only having bought me a nice bottle of merlot, introduced me to a new Italian wine that I never knew existed. And all this for a moment of Aussie humour.

My mate Gavin, in an excursion to the local supermarket, came across a wine called “Gavi” but decided not to buy it. On going out for dinner that evening, lo’ and behold! the wine was on the wine list.

After a bit of giggling at the wine table, we ordered the Gavi (changing the pronunciation from the Australian accent to something more likely to be comprehensible to the Italian waiter), and embarked on discovering an Italian variety I had never before encountered.

Gavi comes from the cortese grape, and the Piedmont region, province of Alessandria. The wine is DOCG classified and it is a white wine that I thought matched well to our food. Gavin reckoned it was like an Australian wine, and I think he was probably referring to how fragrant it was.

The merlot that was given to me is “La gioiosa et amorosa” from the Polegato family. This is an easy drinking wine, soft like a merlot should be and not as thin as most of the other more budget versions of this grape I’ve tried in Italy.

As I lack the memory of the producer of the Gavi we tried, I have resolved to carry a notebook with me everywhere I go that I’m likely to be wine tasting so I keep track of this stuff. But it’s likely to go on my list of wine white purchases in Italy and I recommend it, particularly if you’re looking for white wine options from Piedmont.