2022 Fontanassa Ca' Adua Gavi

The Cortese grape can be so tasty! According to many (international) one of the best Gavi we have ever owned. The Fontanassa Ca' Adua Gavi is a somewhat fuller Gavi with a longer lingering aftertaste than usual, but made very precisely and accurately. The price for this wine is very modest. Juicy and fresh entrance, hints of peach and other summer fruits. Fresh herbs, oregano and wet stones. Lively, minimal tingling, clean, uplifting. This Gavi is delicious to drink standalone and is a perfect accompaniment to salad, fish, seafood, pasta, soft cheeses.

What do many Italians themselves drink as soon as the mercury rises outside? Gavi! The wines from the Piedmontese village of Gavi are regularly referred to as 'the Chablis of Italy'. Not surprising, because they are wonderfully crispy and fresh and combine perfectly at the table. The village of Gavi is located in Piedmont, close to Liguria and therefore only 30-40 km from the sea. Cortese is the grape used for making Gavi. It is precisely in Gavi that Cortese produces exciting wines due to the unique microclimate: the ventilating sea breeze collides here with the mountain ridges of the Apennines. There are therefore strong temperature differences between day and night that give the Cortese its tension. The entire appellation benefits from this microclimate. The best wines come from the higher vineyards directly around the village. Cortese produces wines with more precise acidity and a more aromatic character on white surfaces with tuff. This sub-area therefore has its own demarcated name Gavi del Comune di Gavi DOCG (often abbreviated to Gavi di Gavi).

Only the best producer from each of the 9 communes is allowed to join Gavi's elite and Marco Gemme, owner and winemaker of Fontanassa, is one of them. Together with his brother Roberto and oenologist Gaspare Buscemi, their very first harvest was harvested in 1988. Located in Rovereto, in the historic heart of the DOCG, Fontanassa owns 27 hectares of vineyards, all laid out on scrap yards with a south-southwest orientation. The marl-like soil mainly contains a lot of clay, limestone and iron-containing sand. The vines are cultivated using the Guyot method and the grapes are picked by hand.

The qualities of the Cortese grape were already recorded in 1659 and in 1870 the Cortese was once the most widely planted white grape variety in the province of Alessandria (Piedmont). The best quality comes from the DOCG Gavi.