The Pio Cesare Cortese di Gavi is a reminder that great wine doesn’t have to be ridiculously expensive
The last time I reviewed this wine it cost one-third less and was a wine of the week. Nevertheless, it was a value then and it remains a value today.
That’s because quality wines made by a top-notch producer may cost more than they used to. But they still deliver value when too many other wines cost more for no reason other than they should. The Pio Cesare Cortese di Gavi ($22, purchased, 13.5%) is firmly of the first category.
It’s an Italian white made with the less-known cortese grape. This vintage, though already three years old, could use a little more time in the bottle to come together. Still, it’s well worth drinking, and especially well worth buying for a Mother’s Day brunch next week.
Look for green herbs, barely ripe pear fruit, and even the kind of grassiness usually found in traditional California sauvignon blanc. Plus, it’s wonderfully flinty and almost savory in a way certain Italian white wines can be when they don’t try to be something other than Italian white wines.
Highly recommended. It’s the kind of wine the late Pia Boffa would have tasted with a wine writer and then expounded on, telling the writer why it’s the best example of its kind of wine possible.
And he might have been right.
Imported by Maisons Marques & Domaines USA