White Grape · Piedmont

Cortese

The grape behind Gavi, Piedmont's benchmark dry white. Cortese trades perfume for precision: green apple, lemon and a bitter-almond snap over the kind of high, stony acidity that made it Liguria's seafood wine long before Gavi earned its DOCG.

Cortese is the white grape of Gavi DOCG. It grows across the marl and limestone hills of south-eastern Piedmont, around Alessandria and the Alto Monferrato. It is bone-dry, high in acidity and deliberately understated. It trades tropical fruit for green apple, lemon and a signature bitter-almond finish. This is Piedmont's answer to a serious, food-driven white.

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Denominations

Before you buy

The words that change the wine

Gavi DOCG The benchmark: still, dry Cortese from the hills around the town of Gavi in south-east Piedmont.
Gavi di Gavi A stricter tier from vineyards inside the commune of Gavi itself, usually the most mineral and ageworthy style.
Cortese dell'Alto Monferrato Cortese from the wider Monferrato hills, typically softer and earlier-drinking than Gavi.
Bianca Fernanda The same grape under its Veneto alias, grown in small amounts around Custoza.

The anchor fact: Every bottle of Gavi is 100% Cortese. Cortese is the grape; Gavi is just the most famous place it grows.

Taste · Where it sits

What it’s actually like in the glass

Forget scores out of five. Here’s Cortese described against grapes you already know.

BodyLean
LightFull

Built light and lean, close to coastal Vermentino in weight and well short of a barrel-aged white; the frame exists to carry acidity, not fruit.

TanninNone
NoneGrippy

A white with next to no tannin, so its only grip is the faint phenolic bite of the bitter-almond finish, not structure.

AcidityRacy
SoftRacy

High, lemony acidity is Cortese's engine, sharper than Fiano and in the bracing league of Verdicchio, and the reason Gavi cuts fried Ligurian seafood.

Fruit-sweetnessBone-dry
DrySweet

Fermented bone-dry with cool orchard fruit, green apple and lemon over anything tropical, which keeps it more savoury than an aromatic Moscato.

Key flavours

Green Apple
The core of young Gavi: a crisp Granny Smith bite that comes from Cortese's early harvest and naturally high acidity, tarter here than the riper apple of a Soave.
Almond
Cortese's signature. A faintly bitter blanched-almond note on the finish, a phenolic echo of the grape's thin golden skins that sets a true Gavi apart from a generic Italian white.
Lemon
Fresh lemon and lemon zest rather than sweet citrus, the fruit staying lean and savoury in step with the wine's mineral, low-sugar frame.
Flint
Struck-flint minerality drawn straight from the marl and limestone soils of Gavi, the reason the wine reads as stony and precise rather than fruity.
Pear
Under-ripe pear skin, cool and quiet, part of Cortese's deliberately understated orchard register rather than any tropical flourish.
Acacia
A whisper of acacia blossom, the grape's one real floral gesture, lifting an otherwise reserved, gastronomic white.
Racy · Crisp Round · Soft Light-bodied Bold · Full Chardonnay Glera Pinot Grigio Sauvignon Blanc Vermentino Pinot Bianco
Cortese

The map

Cortese is light to medium, crisp, fresh acidity, mapped against other white grapes you can buy. The closer a grape sits, the more its weight and freshness resemble Cortese.

Corteselight to medium, crisp, fresh acidity
Chardonnayfuller, rounder
Gleraa close match
Pinot Grigioa close match
Sauvignon Blanccrisper
Vermentinoa close match
Pinot Biancorounder

Is this for you?

An honest gut-check

Reach for it when…

A bold red that just works

  • You want a bone-dry, mineral white for oysters, prawns or vitello tonnato
  • You love steely, unoaked precision over ripe tropical fruit
  • You are drinking young and fresh, ideally within three years of the vintage
  • You want Piedmont in a white, not just its Barolo and Barbaresco reds

Maybe skip it if…

You’re after something else tonight

  • You reach for aromatic, floral whites like Gewurztraminer or a fragrant Fiano
  • You want oak, weight and richness in your white
  • You are cellaring for the long haul; most Gavi is built to drink young
  • You dislike a briny, bitter-almond twist on the finish

Serving guide

Pour it at its best

Serve at

8-10°C

Serve at 8 to 10C. Too warm and Cortese's delicate green-apple and almond notes fall flat, losing the tension that defines it.

Decant

No

No decanting. Gavi is about primary freshness; air only dulls its citrus lift and mineral snap.

Glass

Sauvignon Blanc Glass

A smaller white-wine bowl funnels the quiet aromatics and keeps the wine cold, flattering Cortese's restrained nose.

Drink within

3-5 days

Drink most bottles within two to three years; the fruit fades faster than the acidity.

Cellar

Up to 5 years

Only single-vineyard and riserva Gavi rewards five years or more, trading apple for a waxy, flinty depth.

On the table

What to eat with Cortese

Start with the home-table matches that made the grape, then browse the full cuisine library.

Vitello Tonnato

The Piedmont classic

Vitello Tonnato

Cortese and vitello tonnato are both Piedmontese, and Gavi's lemony acidity slices through the rich tuna-and-caper sauce while its almond note echoes the cold veal.
Trofie al pesto

Ligurian neighbour

Trofie al pesto

Gavi grows just over the hills from Liguria, and its crisp, mineral cut keeps basil pesto and its olive-oil richness fresh rather than heavy.
Oysters

Raw bar

Oysters

The wine's saline, flinty edge and searing acidity meet raw oysters head on, resetting the palate between each one.
Fish and Chips

Fried and salty

Fish and Chips

High acidity is the whole point: Gavi's lemon-zest freshness cuts battered, fried fish the way a squeeze of lemon does.

Browse every pairing

Italian Italian
Meats 1

Buy it · three to start with

Not sure which bottle? Start here

A curated trio across the price range, then every Cortese on sale in the UK right now.

Entry · everyday

Gavi - Ricossa SAVE -15%

Gavi - Ricossa

Gavi/Cortese di Gavi

1 retailer

£10.70

£12.52

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Why this one: An honest everyday Gavi: green apple and lemon, crisp and clean, the easiest way to meet Cortese for around a tenner.

The sweet spot

Villa Sparina Gavi di Gavi

Villa Sparina Gavi di Gavi

Gavi/Cortese di Gavi

4 retailers

£17.20

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Why this one: Villa Sparina is a Gavi di Gavi benchmark, rounder and more textural, showing what a serious estate draws from the marl soils around Gavi.

12 of 68 bottles

Denominations

Where it earns a name on the label

The appellations where Cortese plays a starring role.

Gavi/Cortese di GaviDOCG

Where it grows

Where Cortese grows in Piedmont

Piedmont wine region

Piedmont

From Barolo's tannic spine to Asti's gentle fizz, Piedmont turns Nebbiolo, Barbera, Moscato, and Cortese into Italy's most cru-mapped wine country.

1,868 wines · 62 denominations
Explore the Piedmont guide

The terroir

Cortese barely leaves south-east Piedmont, and exactly where it grows changes the wine in the glass.

Gavi

Marl and limestone hills around the town of Gavi

The mineral benchmark: taut, stony and the longest-lived Cortese of all.

Alto Monferrato

The wider hills of Ovada, Acqui and Tortona

Softer, rounder and earlier-drinking, bottled as Cortese dell'Alto Monferrato.

Colli Tortonesi

The Tortona hills to the east, Timorasso country

Firmer and more textural, from cooler, higher vineyard sites.

Editorial

About Cortese

Cortese has been grown in south-eastern Piedmont for centuries. A 1659 document preserved in the archives of Novi Ligure records vineyards of Cortese bianco planted for dry wine. By the late nineteenth century the variety was widespread across the province of Alessandria. It was valued for its reliable yields and its resistance to disease. Its modern reputation was built at Gavi. The dry whites there climbed steadily in quality through the twentieth century, until Gavi was raised to DOCG in 1998.

Piedmont is red-wine country. Cortese is the quiet exception that taught the region to take white wine seriously.

Gavi, raised to DOCG in 1998

The grape is a faithful mirror of where it grows. It ripens early and holds its acidity high. On the marl and limestone soils of Gavi and the Alto Monferrato it gives a wine of stony precision rather than showy aroma. Expect green apple, lemon, unripe pear and white flowers. It always closes on the faintly bitter almond note that marks a true Cortese. With a year or two in bottle the best examples gain a waxy, flinty depth.

Most Cortese is made as a still, unoaked white. The grape also lends itself to spumante and lightly frizzante styles, and a handful of producers age a riserva. Beyond Gavi it appears in Cortese dell'Alto Monferrato, Colli Tortonesi and Piemonte Cortese. Its natural home remains the hills of Piedmont. There it stands alongside aromatic whites like Arneis and Vermentino, as the region's understated, gastronomic counterpoint.

Good to know

Frequently asked

Gavi tastes dry, crisp and stony, with green apple, lemon and a signature bitter-almond finish. It is made from the Cortese grape in south-eastern Piedmont. It is light-bodied and high in acidity, built around citrus and a stony edge rather than tropical fruit.

Cortese is the grape. Gavi is the wine and its denomination. Gavi DOCG is made entirely from Cortese grown around the town of Gavi in Piedmont. So every Gavi is a Cortese. But Cortese is also bottled as Cortese dell'Alto Monferrato, Colli Tortonesi and Piemonte Cortese.

Gavi is a bone-dry white. Cortese has naturally high acidity and no sugar left over in its standard form. That gives a fresh, savoury style. The grape is also made into dry spumante and frizzante versions.

Cortese pairs best with seafood and lighter Italian dishes. Its high acidity and clean finish suit vitello tonnato, fritto misto di mare, shellfish and trofie al pesto. That reflects its home just inland from the Ligurian coast.

Cortese is grown mainly in south-eastern Piedmont, in the provinces of Alessandria and Asti. Its most famous zone is Gavi. There are further plantings across the Alto Monferrato hills around Ovada, Acqui and Tortona.

Most Gavi is made to drink young, within two to three years, for its freshness. The best single-vineyard and riserva bottlings can develop for five years or more. They gain a waxy, flinty depth while holding their acidity.

Explore by style

Wine styles made from Cortese

Jump to the editorial guide for each style this grape turns up in.

Keep exploring

More white grapes