2009 Picollo Ernesto Gavi di Gavi

Happy Friday, all! These are exciting times. Take a look around, everywhere you look, things are a-bloomin’. Check out your local Farmers’ Market, and there are sure signs that spring indeed has sprung. Flip on the TV and check out what’s on the sports channels: Baseball! And if you take a drive through wine country, the skeletal, craggy vines of winter are showing renewed signs of life as budbreak has occurred and the 2011 vintage is on! As the days continue to grow longer and warmer, we’re compelled to trade in that glass of hearty, luscious red wine for something cool and crisp. By virtue of our ability to directly import wine from the Old World, have we got a super deal on a super wine from Italia: The 2009 Gavi di Gavi Rovereto from Picollo Ernesto.

We had brought in one previous vintage of the Gavi wines from Picollo Ernesto already, but when we tasted the latest releases, the 2009s, we said, “Ancora!” The Gavi DOCG was a stunning success with just the right amount of crisp, lipsmacking fruit, mineral, and lively acidity. The 2009 Gavi di Gavi Rovereto is a whole ‘nother animal altogether! This is true Gavi di Gavi, grown on the slopes of Gavi’s famous Rovereto. The focused aromas are complex and refined. You get more than a hint of sun baked, rocky, rich mineral and a breeze of stone fruit all wrapped up in a floral profile. The palate is fresh and crisp, with an abundance of complex nuance: think apricots, blossoms, and stones. The fresh acidity keeps all of that humming through the finish leading the contented sipper scratching their head wondering how all of this goodness can come out of a bottle priced well below $20. But that’s why we do what we do! We take such pleasure when we unearth a gem of a wine that drives like a Bentley with the sticker of a Prism. The 2009 Gavi di Gavi Rovereto is that gem of a wine!

What to pair the wine with, you might ask? It will shine with lighter meats, of course, like fish, shellfish, or a chicken breasted Caesar Salad. Its friendliness is not confined to dinner either. A warm evening and a couple of olives with the right company will do the trick just as well. So let’s all get up for the seventh inning stretch, grab some spring leeks, wipe off those eye shades, and enjoy the explosion of April’s colorful flora; spring is here! And just in time, we’ve got your springtime wine covered. Seriously, if it wasn’t so trite, we could easily get away with calling the 2009 Picollo Ernesto Gavi di Gavi Rovereto, “Springtime in a bottle”. Let the sun shine. – Piero Zaviallo