Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
with enough class and experience to once again
be a topic of conversation and desire.
In fact, Gavi has probably never been better,
with a plethora of young up-and-coming pro-
ducers now churning out one good wine after
another. Cortese wines, when well made, have
many selling points: high acidity (such that
excellent sparkling wines, as well as great food
wines, can be made), real minerality, and even
ageworthiness. The problem resides in the
yields: produce too many grapes, something
that Cortese has no problem doing, and the
resulting wine will be insipid and devoid of
interest. In all honesty, the aroma of even the
best Cortese wines does not exactly burn the
nostril with laser-like intensity, and thus care-
less and greedy producers can be left holding
the bag.
Cortese, also known locally as Courteis and
Corteis (and as Bianca Fernanda in Veneto),
has always been an important variety in the
Piedmont because it is also a very good table
grape. One romantic legend has it that the
name of Cortese's most famous wine, Gavi,
derives from the golden-haired, beautiful, and
gentle-natured Princess Gavia, daughter of
Clodomiro, King of the Franks, who eloped to
get married against the wishes of her family.
The whereabouts of the two lovebirds were dis-
covered thanks to an overly talkative innkeeper
(I dare say not a fi rst, in the history of innkeep-
ers and taverners); once caught, the two young-
sters were not only pardoned, but received the
modern territory of Gavi as a wedding gift from
Amalasunta, Queen of the Goths. Alas, while
many have tied the name of the territory and of
the wine to that of the princess (Gavi/Gavia), in
reality Gavi derives from the Latin term
cava-
tum,
meaning cavern, which later evolved into
Gavio and fi nally Gavi.
Cortese has been documented in Piedmont
since at least the seventeenth century, fi rst in
1614 in an inventory of the cellars of the castle
of Casale Monferrato and then in 1659 in Mon-
taldeo by the farmer in charge of the vineyards
at Castello di Montaldeo, who in writing to the
Marquis Doria mentions “vines of Cortese.”
However, the fi rst ampelographic description
of Cortese is by Count Nuvolone in 1799, for
the Turin Agricultural Society. In 1856 the
Marquis Cambiaso planted the fi rst large hold-
ings of Cortese at his estates of Toledana and
Centuriona, and in 1870 Leardi and De Maria
wrote that Cortese was the most-planted variety
in the province of Alessandria. Cortese appears
to have been always appreciated by farmers for
its resistance to cold weather and good produc-
tivity, as well as the high-quality wine that
could be made with it. However its thin-skinned
berries make it liable to attacks of grey rot in
humid or rainy autumns. The variety is charac-
terized by wide biodiversity: an almost unbe-
lievable seventy-fi ve different biotypes have
been described, which are currently being eval-
uated in their agricultural and enological
aspects. Studies such as these have led to over
thirty different Cortese clones being certifi ed
and available for sale. In general, Cortese has
medium-large, pyramidal-conical bunches and
medium-large berries. It has good vigor and
productivity, and usually ripens in the middle
of September. Nowadays Cortese grows in Pied-
mont, Lombardy (Oltrepo' Pavese), and Veneto
(region). In Piedmont it is found mainly in the
provinces of Asti and Alessandria (where Gavi
is located), in the southeastern corner of the
region. Gavi can only be made from Cortese
vineyards located in the countryside around the
ten pretty towns of Bosio, Capriata d'Orba, Car-
rosio, Francavilla Bisio, Novi Ligure, Parodi
Ligure, Pasturana, Gavi, San Cristoforo, Serra-
valle Scrivia, and Tassarolo. The last four are by
far the most famous for wine production, in
particular Gavi (especially the Rovereto sub-
zone) and Tassarolo: these two are reputedly
where the best Cortese wines are made. Cortese
is also grown in the Alto Monferrato and Tor-
tonese areas of Piedmont. as well as in the prov-
ince of Cuneo.
In Australia, Lost Valley Winery in the
Upper Goulburn region of the Central High-
lands in Victoria is making a good Cortese
wine. Their 2011 won a silver medal at the Con-
cours du Vin de Victoria, organized by the
