This week's wine: Gavi

Gavi can be one of Italy’s more disappointing wines, seldom as savoury as it is said to be. Its pedigree looks  impeccable. The noble wine of the north, the pride of Piemonte, the white equivalent of Barolo and Dolcetto. But all this seems to prove is that Italian whites are rarely as good as the reds.

Or is it simply that our supermarkets are too prone to go for inferior Gavi at £7 or £8 a bottle  when we should be prepared to pay £14 or more for something that lives up to its name, as we would in the case of a French Chablis.

The result, at least for me, is that I tend to avoid  supermarket Gavi altogether, knowing that I shall never find one that is sufficiently palatable. Waitrose does its best by stocking two, a basic run-of-the-mill Gavi which is as drinkable as an average Pinot Grigio, and a somewhat superior Gavi di Gavi (the double name being supposedly a symbol of quality) whichis indeed a little better.

But, reduced from £10.99 to £8.24, is it better enough? My answer, despite its crispness, would be no. Faced with a bottle even at that reduced price, I would be inclined to say to hell with pedigree names and go for something else, such as the lesser-known southern Italian Triade which Waitrose also sells and which is an excellent buy at around the same price.
11 April 2015