Fontanafredda
Fontanafredda's Gavi di Gavi is a dry Cortese white from Piedmont's Gavi DOCG. Steel-aged a few months, it stays crisp and mineral, with green apple, lemon and white-flower notes. A clean aperitif and a natural seafood white.
A dry, unoaked Cortese: the producer calls out lemon, lily of the valley and green apple, and Vivino's 1,500-plus reviewers echo apple, pear and citrus with a stony, mineral edge.
Pale straw with greenish tints. Fontanafredda's own notes describe a fine, elegant bouquet of white flowers and fresh fruit, with lemon, lily of the valley and unripe apple to the fore. The 1,500-plus Vivino reviews echo it, naming green apple, pear and lemon-lime citrus most often.
Lemon
Lime
Acacia
Apple
Green Apple
Pear
Flint
HoneyDry, light-bodied and built around bright Cortese acidity. Fermented cool and held in steel for four to five months, it keeps a clean citrus and green-apple line, with the stony minerality drinkers tie to the wine's sandy sandstone-marl soils near the Ligurian Apennines.
Crisp and fresh rather than long, with no oak to blur it; it closes on lemon and a stony, saline note that keeps it food-ready.
A dependable, well-made Gavi for drinking young: Vivino's crowd rates it 3.9 across more than 9,000 votes and ranks recent vintages among the top current Gavi. It sits in Fontanafredda's classic range as an everyday aperitif and seafood white, not a wine to cellar.
Stocked across UK independents and at Majestic, with the current vintage around 18 to 22 pounds a bottle. Each release reaches shelves the spring after harvest, so look for the latest year for maximum freshness.
Scores below weigh this 18-pound Cortese as a food and everyday white against its modest cellar and occasion pull, using its DOCG status, fresh steel-only style and UK price.
Bright, high-acid Cortese with a saline finish is a classic seafood and aperitivo white; Fontanafredda itself points to antipasti and fish, so it scores high for the table.
A dry, unoaked, tannin-free Cortese from a well-known house is easy to approach and understand, an ideal entry to Italian white wine.
Crisp, food-friendly and widely stocked, it is an easy midweek and aperitif white; a sub-20-pound price keeps it in everyday reach with only a slight penalty.
Cheapest UK listing is 18.52 pounds, around the going rate for a branded Gavi DOCG; no category price aggregate was available to compute a precise ratio, so scored mid-band.
Scoring is rule-based and deterministic. The model and weightings are documented in our editorial methodology.
A compact view of what the Gavi/Cortese di Gavi denomination actually requires, and how this bottle sits inside it. Pulled from the official Italian disciplinare.
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Fontanafredda ages this Gavi only in steel and bottles it the following spring, so vintage differences stay small. Vivino rates 2024 an excellent year and ranks 2023 among the top current Gavi.
The 2025 release continues the house style: a dry, unoaked Cortese built for freshness rather than cellaring. Drink it over the next two to three years while its green-apple and citrus character is brightest.
Vivino flags 2024 as an excellent year for this wine. Picked in mid-September and aged four to five months in steel, it is crisp and citrus-driven now and holds its freshness to about 2028.
A fresh, steel-aged Cortese from the 2023 harvest, bottled in spring 2024. Vivino drinkers rank it among the top current Gavi; enjoy it young for its lemon and green-apple snap, ideally by 2027.
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.
Founded at Serralunga d'Alba in 1858, Fontanafredda is one of Piedmont's best-known houses; its Gavi draws on bought-in Cortese from the Gavi commune area rather than estate fruit, which shapes both style and price.
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.
Gavi/Cortese di Gavi is in the DOCG tier. That is not a quality verdict, it is a description of how much freedom the producer has at vinification and ageing.
Gavi/Cortese di Gavi falls within Piedmont , covering Piedmont.
Fontanafredda, founded in 1858 at Serralunga d'Alba, is one of Piedmont's best-known names; that recognition lifts the price above unbranded Gavi, with the cheapest UK listing at 18.52 pounds.
The Gavi zone sits well south of Fontanafredda's Serralunga estate, so the Cortese is sourced rather than estate-bottled, keeping cost below their single-vineyard Langhe wines.
Four to five months in stainless steel and bottling the next spring avoids barrel and long-cellar costs, holding the price in the everyday-white band.
Gavi DOCG caps yields and the vines are Guyot-trained at 4,000 to 5,000 plants per hectare on 200 to 350m slopes, more costly to work than bulk flatland fruit.
UK excise duty of 2.67 pounds plus 20% VAT account for roughly 5.80 pounds of the 18.52-pound shelf price before the retailer's margin and shipping from Piedmont.
Availability across independents and Majestic adds importer and distributor margins to the landed cost of shipping from Serralunga d'Alba.
Dishes that complement this wine
Cortese's bright acidity and saline finish are built for the table. Fontanafredda points to aperitivo, antipasti and fish; the cards below take that to specific Italian seafood plates.
Cortese's high, fresh acidity slices through briny shellfish and their cooking juices, while the wine's light body lets delicate seafood lead. The saline, mineral finish mirrors the sea note instead of fighting it.
Try with: Impepata di cozze · Cozze arraganate · Fregula ai frutti di mare · Spaghetti alla chitarra · More pairings →
A crisp, unoaked white cuts the richness of fried dough and whipped baccala, refreshing the palate between bites. The bright acidity keeps oily, salty textures from cloying.
Try with: Gnocco fritto · Baccala Mantecato · Arancini · Frico · More pairings →
The wine's lemon and white-flower aromatics bridge to citrus-dressed fish and tomato-light seafood stews, extending the dish rather than masking it. Served at 10C it keeps the pairing fresh.
Try with: Pesce spada alla Siciliana · Baccala alla cosentina · Polpo alla pignata · Brodetto alla giuliese · More pairings →
Light-bodied and dry, the wine matches fresh vegetable and soft-cheese starters without overpowering them, echoing the green-apple and herb notes in the food.
Try with: Insalata Caprese · Torta pasqualina · Focaccia Genovese · Frico · More pairings →
Citrus acidity and a saline edge balance salty cured-fish and baccala dishes, refreshing the palate where a rounder white would turn flat.
Try with: Baccala Mantecato · Baccala a Ciuredda · Vitello Tonnato · Impepata di cozze · More pairings →
Skip tannic-red dishes and chilli-heavy plates: a light Cortese has no tannin or sweetness to tame heat, and rich braises simply flatten it. Keep it to lighter, sea-leaning food.
Skip with: Brasato al Barolo · vindaloo · chilli stir-fry · blue-cheese boards · Pairing guide →
This is a steel-aged white made for freshness, not ageing; the producer bottles it the spring after harvest and recommends it young. Buy by the case to drink over a year or two, not to lay down.
Best in the years above; holds without falling over either side.
Made for freshness: steel-aged four to five months and bottled the next spring, with no structure for the cellar. Drink within about three years.
£18.52 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, 15:07 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 100% Cortese, the white grape behind Gavi DOCG in south-east Piedmont. Fontanafredda draws its fruit from the Gavi zone close to the Ligurian Apennines, where sandy sandstone-marl soils give the wine its lean, citrus-driven profile.
Dry, light-bodied and crisp. The producer describes a straw-yellow wine with greenish tints and a delicate bouquet of flowers and fresh fruit, led by lemon, lily of the valley and green apple. Vivino drinkers most often flag green apple, pear and citrus with a stony, mineral edge.
Serve it as an aperitif or with seafood and antipasti. Its bright acidity and saline finish suit peppered mussels, seafood fregola and whipped salt cod, and it lifts lemon-dressed fish without overwhelming it.
Drink it young. It is fermented and aged in steel for four to five months and bottled the following spring to keep its freshness, so it is at its best within about three years of the vintage.
Yes. It is bottled under Gavi DOCG, Piedmont's top tier for Cortese. Fontanafredda, founded in 1858 at Serralunga d'Alba, makes it in the 'del Comune di Gavi' style from Cortese grown in the Gavi commune area.
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