Gavi DOCG, the Great Piedmontese White

A legendary origin

It is said that Princess Gavia, daughter of the King of France Clodomiro, who refused the love of the young woman for a knight, fled until she found refuge in the Piedmontese hills thanks to the intercession of the pope. It was the princess who gave the name to the village that welcomed it while its beauty and its "courteous" soul were the inspiration for the name of the vine from which the delicious local white wine is obtained. The origins of Gavi are, therefore, even legendary. But without "disturbing" plots as suggestive as they lack tangible historical evidence, it can still be said that to identify the origins of the vine and the nectar that is obtained from it you must, in fact, go back a long way in time. Suffice it to say that the first notes concerning the rental of vineyards and chestnut groves to two citizens of Gavi by the Archbishop are reported in a document, now preserved in the Archive of Genoa, dated no less than June 3, 972. It is, therefore, over a thousand years that this territory has developed its particular vocation for the production of white nectars. A vocation that has become, over the centuries, ever deeper, so much so that today we are witnessing a constant increase in the Gavi DOCG Denomination that has reached a total area of about 1500 hectares and to count about 440 companies including producers, winemakers and bottlers, involving over 5,000 people in the entire supply chain.

In the region of red wines par excellence, a white wine rich in history and unmistakable hints stands out

Fascinating Piedmontese region that includes 11 municipalities in the province of Alessandria (Bosio, Capriata d'Orba, Carrosio, Francavilla Bisio, Gavi, Novi Ligure, Parodi Ligure, Pasturana, San Cristoforo, Serravalle Scrivia, Tassarolo) enclosed between Liguria and Lombardy, the territory of Gavi extends in a borderland that from the lower edge of the Po Plain, climbs on the hills and the Ligurian Apennines and that has in the homonymous municipality its fulcrum. We are in the land of red wines par excellence in which, however, stands out an area with breathtaking scenery and a very long history where the color of the nectar of bacchus is white like the Cortese vine from which the Gavi DOCG is obtained, a delicious white wine that, at every taste, releases all the essence of a territory that has been inspired by its pedoclimatic characteristics and rich culture to develop a flourishing production of labels which are increasingly successful in the thick panorama of Piedmontese wines. Only thirty kilometers separate the territory of Gavi, called the Oltregiogo, from the sea. Such proximity has made relations with the Republic of Genoa and Liguria, always known for its delicious white wines and tasty dishes based on fish, lean meats and vegetables, ever closer and more frequent. The characteristics of the soil and the climate have done the rest, favoring the development of the Cortese vine that today gives, not surprisingly, the wine that is called the Great Piedmontese White.