Cortese

The Cortese grape, " corteis " in Piedmont dialect, polite in Italian, is a native white grape variety grown in Piedmont since the ' 700 and mainly found south of Alessandria, from Ovada to the Tortona hills, but produces the best wines in the area of Gavi, a small village southeast of Alessandria, where it is bottled as Gavi.

The Cortese grape can produce wines of excellent quality, characterised by elegance and balance, and this is true not only for fresh and young wines, but also for those who are left aging in bottle to add depth and complexity to the wine. In the last few years, the Cortese grape has been proved to stand ageing, wood as well as bottle, and produce interesting sparkling wines, mainly using the Charmat method.