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La Battistina Gavi 2007 - Wine Notes

Friday, January 22nd, 2010 | Food Pairings, Wine Tasting Notes | 3 Comments

Tonight - something different. GAVI.

I’m venturing out. I NEVER hit up the Italian section at the store because much to my dismay, I’m kind of clueless in that area. My love is Spain, but I like to live on the edge, so random Italian wine it is!

I had a list of ‘menu items’ lined up for my dinner, but what white to drink? I made some tapas and wanted something crisp, fun, citrusy and clean. My first choice was going to be a white from Umbria, as I’ve tasted quite a few of those these days and they seem like a nice food-pairing wine. To no avail, my local W&L mart (wine & liquor…) did not carry such a thing. So, GAVI. And, on a gracious suggestion by a good friend who knows his Italian whites, I ended up with la Battistina’s Gavi 2007.

First smell was one of crisp, citrus fruit, like lemon and some pineapple, leading into a little green apple. The taste is crisp, clean, good rounded acidity and a continuation of the aromas. But this little number only gets better with FOOD! (I mean, if you think about it, what do the Italians like to do? MANGIA!)

I made a little roasted garlic bulb, some gambas al ajillo (shrimp in garlic sauce) and used a little of the Gavi for the sauce on that one, good life choice by me! I also roasted some asparagus spears topped with some black truffle butter and shaved pecorino romano, and had a warm pulpo potato salad on the side. All-in-all everyone was a winner. The wine holds up GREAT to the shellfish / octopus, and the asparagus brought out some clean green grass on the wine. Everything else just rounded out the finish!

As I asked myself, what is Gavi?

It’s from the Piedmont region in Italy that uses mainly the grape varietal, Cortese. According to my awesome De Long’s Wine Grape Varietal Table (because I’m an avid wine geek), the Cortese grape is listed as such: “refreshing, melons, grapey, extremely ancient variety” and it sits in the moderate-to-high acidity rating with a light yellow straw color.

My seemingly first experience went well! These are supposedly the most expensive Italian white wines shipped to the U.S., but I still paid under $20 for the bottle! Bottoms up, my friends!

Cheers.

Kronick Wino

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