Santa Vittoria Gavi 2016
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The Cellars of Santa Vittoria Castle, thanks to careful grape selection in their own vineyards in the Roero area, vinify, refine, and bottle their prestigious wines in the new cellars in Località Guriot. Here, oenological technology struck the right balance to obtain highly refined oenological products.
A idea of quality that particularly enhances the potential of the grape varieties while reducing oenological practices that tend to cover or soften these characteristics. The challenge is then even more complex and interesting: from vineyard to cellar, from cellar to bottle.
The use of stainless steel, allowing maximum hygiene for the product and creating no organoleptic interferences with the characteristics of the variety, is complemented with the right dosage of oxygen during vinification; constant checks and modern technology allow prestigious wines to reach the right refinement and finally obtain their balance with the wisdom that only ageing time can bring.
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.