Cantine Volpi
A fresh, dry white from Cantine Volpi in Tortona, this Piemonte DOC Cortese pours pale straw with green apple, pear and lemon, a saline thread and a faint almond close. Unoaked and gentle at 12% alcohol, it is an easy seafood and antipasti pour.
Drinker consensus across 297 Vivino ratings and Cantine Volpi's own notes agree on a pale, dry Piemonte white led by green apple, pear and lemon, with a saline thread and the faint almond that marks the Cortese grape.
Pale straw with greenish glints. The nose is delicate but clear: green apple and pear over lemon and lime, a lift of elderflower, and the faint almond note that runs through Cortese. Cantine Volpi describes it simply as delicate and persistent.
Lemon
Lime
Elderflower
Green Apple
Pear
Straw
Wet stones
AlmondLight-bodied and properly dry at 12% alcohol, with crisp green-apple acidity and the saline, almost salty mineral streak that Vivino drinkers flag repeatedly. There is no oak; the producer ages it in neither barrel nor bottle, so the fruit stays fresh and direct.
Short to medium and clean, closing on lemon pith and the bitter-almond twist that Cantine Volpi calls its persistent note.
An honest, everyday Piemonte white from a Tortona house working since 1914, rated 3.6 across nearly 300 Vivino ratings. Drink it young and cold as an aperitivo or with seafood; it is made for freshness, not the cellar.
Tracked at two UK merchants around the £11 mark, this is one of the more affordable Piemonte DOC whites on the shelf: a Cantine Volpi everyday bottle rather than a cellar buy.
Strong marks for value and everyday versatility, low marks for cellaring: a fresh, sub-£12 Piemonte white to drink now, not to lay down.
Sub-£12, fresh and low in alcohol: a low-commitment aperitivo and weeknight white.
Around £11 (about $9 average on Wine-Searcher) for a named-producer Piemonte DOC, with a steady 3.6 Vivino score: strong everyday value.
High-acid, low-tannin white with a saline edge: a flexible match for seafood, fried antipasti and lean fish.
A textbook fresh Cortese: no tannin, gentle 12% alcohol and clear green-apple fruit make it an easy entry to Piedmont whites.
Scoring is rule-based and deterministic. The model and weightings are documented in our editorial methodology.
A compact view of what the Piemonte denomination actually requires, and how this bottle sits inside it. Pulled from the official Italian disciplinare.
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Cantine Volpi bottles its Cortese young and unoaked, so the current 2025 is made for freshness and best drunk within about three years of the vintage rather than cellared.
Bottled young and unoaked for early drinking. The 2025 is built for freshness rather than the cellar; Cantine Volpi suggests enjoying it within about three years of the vintage, while its citrus and green-apple lift is brightest.
Drink-now / hold guidance reflects general style cues for this wine, not a forecast for a specific bottle. Where vintage-level editorial notes exist, they appear above.
Cantine Volpi has worked from Tortona since 1914 and was an early mover into organic farming in the 1990s; its Amonte range is the house's affordable everyday line under the regional Piemonte DOC.
Italian wine law sorts bottles into a pyramid. DOCG sits at the top: tightly drawn boundaries, prescribed grapes, mandatory ageing, government tasting before release. DOC is the same idea with looser thresholds. IGT (Indicazione Geografica Tipica) is broader still, requiring only that 85% of the grapes come from the named territory.
Piemonte is in the DOC tier. That is not a quality verdict, it is a description of how much freedom the producer has at vinification and ageing.
Piemonte falls within Piedmont , covering Piedmont.
The broad Piemonte DOC lets Cantine Volpi draw Cortese from across the region rather than one costly named cru, holding the price near £11.
The producer scheda lists ageing as 'no': the wine sees neither barrel nor extended bottle ageing, so there is no cellar or cooperage cost to recover.
Amonte is Cantine Volpi's affordable everyday line, made at scale, which keeps the per-bottle cost low.
A century-old Tortona house with early organic credentials carries a small brand premium over anonymous own-label Cortese.
UK still-wine duty of £2.67 a bottle plus 20% VAT accounts for more than £4 of the roughly £11 UK shelf price.
Dishes that complement this wine
A light, high-acid white with a saline edge, this Cortese is built for shellfish, fried antipasti and the Piedmontese vitello tonnato it grew up beside.
Cortese's bright acidity is built to reset the palate against acidic, tomato-led plates and the caper-and-tuna sauce of vitello tonnato, the Piedmontese dish it grew up beside. Acidity answers acidity, so neither the wine nor the food turns flat.
Try with: Insalata Caprese · Vitello Tonnato · Gnocco fritto · More pairings →
Fat and batter need acidity to cut them, and this dry, unoaked Cortese has the crisp green-apple edge to do it. It rinses the oil from fried fish and tempura and keeps each bite tasting light.
Try with: Fish and Chips · Potted Shrimp · Prawn Tempura · More pairings →
The wine's own saline, mineral streak meets the brine of shellfish rather than fighting it, while 12% alcohol keeps things delicate. Vivino drinkers name shellfish as the wine's natural match.
Try with: Mussels · Crab · Oysters · More pairings →
Citrus and green-apple aromatics bridge to clean, lean fish without overpowering it. The low body and gentle alcohol of this Cortese let the delicate flavour of sashimi and steamed fish come through.
Try with: Sashimi · Nigiri Sushi · Steamed sea bass · More pairings →
A light-bodied white sits with light-bodied food. This Cortese matches the weight of a seafood risotto and its citrus freshness lifts the richness of the rice rather than competing with it.
Try with: Squid ink risotto · Risotto alla Milanese · More pairings →
At 12% alcohol with no residual sugar, this delicate Cortese has nothing to absorb chilli heat; capsaicin amplifies the alcohol and strips the fruit. Reach for an off-dry Alto Adige Gewurztraminer instead.
Skip with: vindaloo · Sichuan hotpot · sweet-and-sour pork · jerk chicken · Pairing guide →
Best in the years above; holds without falling over either side.
Unoaked, no ageing mandate, and a producer drink-window of about three years: built for early drinking, not the cellar.
£11.00 is the lowest tracked offer for the current vintage and we have no signal of further discounting.
Read directly from each retailer’s public product page once a day. Last refresh: 7 Jun 2026, 14:52 BST. We do not hold stock and we do not accept payment for placement.
Confidence · HighDrawn from what drinkers consistently report on Vivino and Wine-Searcher, summarised in our own words. A crowd read across many tasters, not a single critic.
Confidence · MediumFrom the official Italian disciplinare for this denomination, cross-checked against the Ministry of Agriculture register.
Confidence · HighOur reading of the price, drawn from the disciplinare, public UK duty rates, and typical landed-cost benchmarks. Not a quote from the producer or a retailer.
Confidence · MediumStyle guidance for this kind of wine at this price point. Treat it as advice, not a forecast for the bottle in your hand.
Confidence · MediumIt is made entirely from Cortese, the native white grape of south-east Piedmont, grown here under the regional Piemonte DOC.
Dry and light-bodied, with green apple, pear and lemon, a saline mineral note and the faint almond finish typical of Cortese. It is unoaked and fresh.
Seafood and lean fish, shellfish, fried antipasti and the Piedmontese vitello tonnato. Its bright acidity also cuts through battered and fried dishes.
Cantine Volpi suggests drinking it within about three years of the vintage. The 2025 is best enjoyed now, while its citrus freshness is at its peak.
At around £11 it sits at the affordable end of Piemonte whites, and a 3.6 average across nearly 300 Vivino ratings makes it a dependable everyday pour.
12% ABV, on the lighter side for a dry white, which suits it to lunchtime and aperitivo drinking.
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