2025 Casa Ernesto Gavi Piedmont

Close your eyes... 

Picture the sun dipping behind the Rovereto hills, where the Mediterranean breeze meets the sharp chill of the Piedmont mountains.

Picollo Ernesto is a 16-hectare masterclass in a single grape: Cortese. The story began in 1945 when Lorenzo Picollo founded the estate in the prestigious Rovereto commune. The winery later passed to his son, Ernesto, and is now steered by his grandson, Gianlorenzo.

For over 80 years, the "Picollo boys" have been on a relentless mission to perfect Gavi. They’ve traded old-school high yields for modern "green harvesting" to intensify flavor, brought the winery into the future with top-tier tech, and shifted the entire estate to organic viticulture.

Gavi is Piedmont's answer to Chablis: mineral-driven, focused, built for the table rather than the trophy case. When it's done right — old vines, careful farming, stainless steel to preserve the grape's natural cut — it punches well above its price. This is one of those.

The 2025 was hand-harvested and fermented cool in stainless steel at 64°F, then left to rest four to six weeks before bottling. The wine was held in the cellar for another four to six months before release — a timeline that matters. Cortese needs that rest to knit together: the floral lift, the white peach and pineapple fruit, the chalky minerality that makes the finish feel longer than it is.

In the glass: straw yellow, fragrant with white flowers and stone fruit, fresh and mineral on the palate, finishing clean. Full-bodied for the category without any weight — the kind of white that makes you reach for another glass before the first course arrives. This is $22 wine that drinks like bottles twice the price. Buy the twelve.